


Harry Potter and the Freedom of Flight

by MountainRose



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Alternate Universe - Space, Artificial Intelligence, Clever Harry, First-year, Gen, Hogwarts is a ship, Humor, Illness, Magic as Technology, Malfoy - Potter alliance, Medical, Mentor!Snape - Freeform, Science Fiction, Spaceships, Technology as Magic, this causes pronoun confusion
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-28
Updated: 2013-04-22
Packaged: 2017-11-27 08:16:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 55,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/659801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MountainRose/pseuds/MountainRose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At 11, Harry Potter is about to be set free. Neglected and weakened by his relatives, once his parents' old crew have him, they are not going to let him go back. </p><p>His new world, the world he was born into and the one that gave him his scar is more terrible, and more beautiful than anyone warned him.</p><p>Strongly AU, Sci-Fi, Mentor!Snape</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on ff.net, and now abandoned, unfinished. To see the original unpolished version (also incomplete but longer and further into the year) go to: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7507470/1/Harry-Potter-and-the-Freedom-of-Flight
> 
> Come with an open mind, there may be some ooc elements; living in a different universe has changed shit a little! This is Mentor!Healer!Snape and firmly alternate universe; magic is different, but it is still here. I hope you enjoy teasing out the logic.
> 
> Warnings: Sci-fi, pleasant!Snape, sick!Harry, Mentions of child neglect and abuse (cannon),
> 
>  
> 
> Enjoy and Sky Speed.

_  
Chapter one: Upheaval_

"Admiral, we have incoming jump, coordinates: Alpha three-three-two, Echo twenty; Solaris relative. Visual in three... two... one."

A large blue and red flash to the left of and just above Hogwarts' prow showed where the new ship was jumping in and the Admiral smiled, resting a hand on the reporting officer's shoulder.

" _PPZZZ... This is Transport Hotel Echo niner one, requesting docking permission. It's good to be home."_

"Roger that, Hotel Echo! This is Hogwarts flight control; it's good to see you. You are clear for loading bay landing, authorization: Lemur, Foxtrot, Yankee. Repeat: Lemur, Foxtrot, Yankee."

" _kkssst... Copy, Lemur Foxtrot Yankee. Coming in nice and slow for a fore-aft landing. ADS is online and bringing us in."_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

One month, two weeks and three days prior to the arrival of the Hogwarts Express, HE91, into Battle Cruiser Hogwarts' jump space,

Galactic Standard Time 14th July 1991,

Colonial Museum of Technology. District One, Sector Tango.

"MUMMY! Why won't it _move?_ DADDY, make it move!" Dudley's obnoxious whine didn't bother Harry anymore, but people were _looking_ , which did. Uncle Vernon tried to explain that VCF's couldn't move without one of their freak pilots but Dudley's attention span had him running off to the next exhibit before the puffing, over-weight Vernon could say more than a few garbled sentences.

Harry was in no hurry to be near his hyperactive cousin and lingered behind, stepping up to the barrier. The shimmering, transparent blue energy field had small blocks of text explaining the nature of the exhibit floating on it.

"VCF, Visceral Control Fighter..." He read, looking up at the sleek white metal ship. The plating on one wing was slightly scorched and the metal was covered in dings and silver streaks where orbital debris had impacted on the hull and dented it or worn the paint off. "Capable of fighting both in atmospheric pressure and in vacuum... wow..."

Harry had never been off-World, nor had his Aunt, Uncle, or cousin, and he knew that if you left the planet you'd leave your soul behind, Aunt Petunia had said so. But still! He let himself imagine for a moment, climbing into the gel-filled cockpit and taking off, roaring high into the sky and away from here.

He couldn't help but grin widely; it would be so cool! And Dudley would be too fat and too slow to do anything about it.

His face soon shifted from glee to curiosity when something began to hum intermittently. He looked around, slightly concerned that they might be about to have a power surge, like when Dudley had chased him around school and a power fluctuation in the barrier around the playground had bounced him onto the roof. But no one else, even the attendant Uncle Vernon was talking to, looked like they had heard anything. He tilted his head to the side, trying to find the source and turned back to the ship abruptly. There! He stepped closer, leaning against the barrier with one hand. Sure enough, one of the lights in the cockpit was blinking on and off in time to the hum. His face lit up in awe as the hard shell covering the pilots seat pulled away like an iris and the gel filling the space rippled.

It seemed welcoming.

The barrier fell.

Harry took a step forward; eyes fixed on the screens flickering to life in the cockpit.

And promptly was pushed roughly aside, falling backwards, as Dudley charged past, yelling at the top of his voice again.

"DADDY, LOOK! Potter made it move!" Harry, shocked out of his dazed awe, looked around fearfully, wishing he could undo whatever it was he'd done before Vernon noticed. His Uncle was already charging towards the ship, though, his face puce with rage. Harry cowered, flinging his arms up over his head and felt a ripple that, though he couldn't say _what_ was rippling, felt rather familiar. No sooner had that happened than did Uncle Vernon run full tilt into the corner of the newly erected barrier. Dudley looked on, shocked, as the blue field rippled up all around the ship, as it had before, trapping him inside. Harry giggled a little; dropping his arms from his protective stance, as Dudley beat his fists against the barrier, looking frightened himself for once.

Then the alarms went off. The ship powered down, the barrier turned red and warning messages in orange began to scroll across it at shoulder height, a siren sounded...

Chaos.

Harry sighed and drew his knees up to his chest, resting his chin on the worn through knee of his jeans.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

By the time they got home it was late, Dudley was cranky, Aunt Petunia was fussing and Uncle Vernon had gone quiet and an ominous shade of white. They pulled into the garage at around nine in the evening and when the motor cut out there was dead silence for about three seconds as Vernon, usually the first to move, sat peeling his death-grip off the steering wheel.

Aunt Petunia broke the awkward moment,

"Come along Diddums, let's get you some ice-cream." The great lump was sniffling and looking pitiful for all he was worth after his "traumatic experience" and Harry sighed, quietly as he could, and got out of the car before Dudley's considerable weight moving around could jostle him too much. He held the door into the hall way open for Aunt Petunia and his cousin; he didn't really want to walk in front of Dudley right now, just in case he got off a kick or something. He forgot that this meant he was at Vernon's mercy instead.

_Oops._

His Uncle's beefy fist closed around the back of his neck and Harry felt all the hairs down his spine stand on end.

"Don't think for a minute that you're getting food tomorrow. Not after this!" The fist started jerking him painfully from side to side and Harry had to reach up and hold onto Uncle Vernon's fingers to avoid falling over. "Get in your cupboard, Boy!"

He loosened his grip on Harry's scruff and pushed him towards the cupboard under the stairs, making Harry stumble.

"Yes, Uncle Vernon..." he mumbled, shoulders slumped,

"And no more of this Freakishness! It's bad enough that you're parents had to go get themselves killed, you hear me?"

"Yes, Uncle Vernon." Harry gritted his teeth against his futile, angry tears. He was _hungry_ , they'd made him stay in the car when they had stopped at the fast food place on the way home and Dudley had commandeered his lunch, under Petunia's watchful and satisfied eye, so he hadn't eaten in hours already! For a ten year old, this was, of course, the end of the world. Harry was used to the world ending on a regular basis so he ground his teeth, ignored the comment about the parents he had never known, and went to his cupboard.

The first letter arrived three days later.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

GST 17th July 1991,

Number 4, Privet Drive, District One, Sector Sierra.

The Cupboard under the Stairs.

Harry Potter sat in near total darkness on the cot in his cupboard. He had been let out to cook breakfast in the last two days but he knew he was still in trouble for the 'Incident'. His Aunt and Uncle had made it perfectly clear that it was _all_ his fault so he was only being allowed out for chores. He'd gotten a bit of breakfast and an orange after he'd made lunch the day before so he didn't feel like he might fall over but he was still too hungry to sleep for long. So he sat in the near-dark playing with the broken soldiers he'd filched from the bin. Their holographics were fairly banged up; all four flickered and one had even lost the red and green parts of the projection so it was just a blue ghost of a guy holding a rifle. Dudley had run over them with his toy tank. Repeatedly.

Harry had managed to get these ones back working though, by fiddling with the batteries and in one case pushing the little lens back into place with the arm off his glasses. He was pretty proud of the achievement, though he knew to hide them from everyone. At least he had a little bit of light in here, now.

The blue soldier was just tragically failing to save a comrade from falling off a cliff, by virtue of being a ghost and having no body, when he heard his Aunt clattering down the stairs, her high heels making the most horrendous racket. He quickly turned the little holographs off and hid the bases under his pillow, sitting back so that the light coming through the door wouldn't blind him when she opened it.

"UP! Get up! You lazy, useless boy, UP!" Her voice was pretty piercing at the best of times, even through the metal hatch. It slid open with a hissing sound, letting harsh artificial light into his cupboard and making him blink, even in the shadows.

"Yes, Aunt Petunia." He shuffled forwards as slowly as he dared, squinting and trying to get his eyes to adjust. The world was still fuzzy but at least his eyes didn't hurt by the time he had climbed out of the cupboard. He pulled his glasses off the shelf just inside the hatch and hooked them over his ears as he followed his Aunt to the kitchen. The refracting barrier stretched between the ear and nose pieces shimmered gray then silver for a second before settling clear and round into lenses and correcting his horrendous eyesight. They didn't work as well as they used to, when they'd first adjusted to his eyes, but they still helped. He nudged the frames up with his knuckles and rubbed his eyes before opening the storage cabinet and reaching inside for bacon, eggs and butter. Each container was at a slightly different temperature under his hands as he picked them up and put them on the counter. The packaging kept them at their ideal temperature to keep them from spoiling.

"Eight rashers and five eggs, get too it! And don't you dare burn anything!" His Aunt shrieked as she clattered around, laying the table. He sighed and got the two heavy frying pans out and stuck them on the induction coil on the counter. The colour spot quickly glowed red and he poured in oil, added bacon and got to cracking eggs.

The smell of frying pig brought a flying pig down the stairs. Harry's pun made him giggle a little and fortunately Aunt Petunia was fussing over the over-weight lump of lard and didn't notice. He watched the bacon carefully, turning it over with tongs every few minutes before turning it out onto a paper towel and leaving the pan to cool on the draining board. The eggs went straight on the plates, two each for the 'men' of the household and one for his Aunt, Harry felt sorrowful that they weren't scrambled so that he could nick some... He delivered the plates to their respective recipients, taking great care because the plates were heavy, large and awkward, especially for a ten-year-old.

He didn't want to watch them eat when he was so hungry so he retreated into the kitchen to make himself some toast. There were only three chairs at the dining room table. There had only ever been three chairs.

He turned to the counters while his bread was toasting and began to clean up the specks of fat that spat out of the pan every time you fry something. Noise blared from the screen that shimmered up from the counter between the kitchen and dining room, showing some ground-race or other that Harry had very little interest in. HE would much prefer to watch the VC tech races but his Aunt disapproved strongly of anything VC, saying it was only one step away from going off-planet and that she didn't want little Duddykins exposed to such freakishness. Harry thought that she was probably even worse now, since the Incident. Dudley was quite happy to go along with his mothers' dislike, especially since it was something that Harry _did_ like.

Just as his toast popped, Uncle Vernon yelled for Harry, and he resigned himself to cold toast again.

"Boy! Go fetch the post." His Uncle didn't even look at him, just gestured with his fork.

Harry shuffled off to get Vernons' data pad from the living room, turning it on and telling it to download the day's mail. He took his time going back, it was best if Vernon had his mail the moment the little computer was in his hand, so Harry idly watched the data packets come in, named and labelled:

'V. Dursley, Grunnings Plant and Manufacture,'

'Petunia, dear, have a look at this'

'Mrs Dursley, can Dudley come over?'

'Harry Potter.'

Harry stopped dead in the doorway to the kitchen. He had _never_ gotten mail. Ever. There was no label on the file, just his name and a symbol of an arrow-like object streaking across a field of three stars. He lifted a finger to tap the file but Uncle Vernon snatched the pad away from him,

"Don't go reading other people's mail!" he snarled, looking like he might turn puce again if Harry wasn't careful.

"Sorry, Uncle Vernon, but there's something there for me!" he took a step forwards reaching out as if he might take the pad back and read his letter. Vernon was not impressed and yelled in his face, spraying him liberally with saliva.

"You filthy little liar! Who would want to send mail to you? You useless, pointless brat!"

"I'm not lying, look! It's right there!" Uncle Vernon glanced down, sneering, but the expression disappeared when he scanned down the list and spotted Harry's name. He went very, very pale.

"Go to your rooms." He said with quiet fury, he looked up when Dudley didn't move; his eyes fixed to the video screen. "Both of you!" He snapped. Dudley looked about to complain, but the look on his fathers' face made him squeak and leg it out of the room. Harry backed away more slowly, still wanting his letter, but it was clear Vernon wouldn't budge. He went to his cupboard and fumed in private.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The next morning, something very similar happened, only Harry had the Pad snatched from him much more quickly. Uncle Vernon deleted the message in moments.

The morning after that, Harry's Uncle deleted his entire correspondence without looking at it.

The messages did not stop coming.

After the first week, Vernon destroyed the data pad that collected their mail.

Three days later, the letter appeared on the house's video system. It kept doing so every day subsequently.

Uncle Vernon oscillated between maddened rage and a bizarre, calm insanity. Harry frequently overheard him and Petunia talking about "those freaks...!" and then cutting off when they noticed that Harry had entered the room.

Dudley complained constantly about not getting mail from his friends and being unable to watch vid broadcasts. His Aunt often forgot to set Harry chores, especially if he sat quietly in the garden, out of the way. That worried Harry more than anything else.

After breakfast on the 30th of July, one week and six days after the first letter, Uncle Vernon evacuated the house. He told Aunt Petunia and Dudley to pack their things, told Harry to put together some food and told them all to get in the car.

By lunchtime, they were a mile above the surface, amongst a stream of traffic with Uncle Vernon honking at the people in the lane above them, who were driving a little close; the backwash of their propulsion engine was setting off their proximity sensors. Harry handed out the sandwiches he'd made to keep Dudley from screaming and settled back into his seat.

Already they were further from Privet Drive than he had ever been before; he'd only crossed sector boundaries once before, on the way to the zoo, and this time they'd crossed over four! Uncle Vernon had even said that they were going to the _coast!_ That meant leaving District One! Harry had never seen the sea...

He didn't really pay attention to the fact that he'd be eleven in twelve hours, but it did dampen his enthusiasm a little bit.

By mid afternoon they had made landfall again, coming down from the sky highway to run on tarmac again and the roads were much quieter. Their propulsion engine made the occasional crackle of electricity when they passed over a wet patch of road but that was about it for noise. Even Dudley was subdued; Harry thought that he looked nervous, even. They'd passed over the city boundary hours ago and he knew that his cousin had never been out of the city, District 1, also known as London. He didn't like the change, apparently. Harry, on the other hand, thought it was awesome. And _GREEN_. He'd never seen so much green in all his life, there were trees, even; actual wooden ones!

Harry saw a field of pigs, all happily rolling in mud and eating gray slop out of troughs with great enthusiasm and almost pointed them out, but then thought that he might put Dudley off bacon, and then he'd have to cook sausages instead, which was much harder. So, he kept quiet, fiddling with the end of the belt that held his trousers up and watching the scenery.

As it began to get dark, Dudley started to whine. And didn't stop. Harry had already run out of food to give him, and Uncle Vernon was not about to stop before they got to their destination. Dudley started to cry in earnest.

Harry almost felt sorry for him, thinking that this was probably the first time he'd ever been _actually_ ignored. Harry knew how it felt.

Eventually, Uncle Vernon pulled into a car park and cut the motors. Dudley was still sniffling and got out of the car, quick as a shot, just in case his father decided to start driving again before getting him food. Aunt Petunia, looking a little green, got out too and, after a quick word with her husband, headed with the big lump of lard that was her son to a nearby corner shop. Vernon went to talk to a figure standing out of the street lamps in the far corner of the lot and Harry was left alone in the car.

He was, admittedly, a little angry now. He knew that his Uncle had deliberately broken their data pad and had gotten them out of the house so that Harry's letter couldn't get through the vid system and now they were in some small town, he had no idea where, _and_ it was too dark to see the sea, _and he wasn't going to get his letter._

He wondered how his letter had got into the vid system in the first place; that had never happened before. Maybe people only did that for really important letters? And _if_ the letter was really important, and _if_ it could get into the vid system, what was stopping it getting into the _audio_ system? He turned off the seat restrainer, (which Dudley never wore, but Harry would prefer _not_ to die if they crashed, thank you very much) and leaned between the two front seats to try and turn on the radio. He stabbed the touch plate repeatedly, but nothing happened, the module was completely powered down. Harry sighed heavily and slumped back in his seat, pouting a little bit.

Aunt Petunia and Dudley got back before Vernon, a bag of dehydrated "Just add water, we'll do the rest!" meals in hand. Dudley had chocolate smeared around his mouth and on his fingers, and had stopped his annoying whining. They got back in the car and the whole thing rocked when Dudley sat down. Harry spotted Vernon coming back first, since he'd seen were he'd gone in the first place, and saw something that _really_ worried him. Uncle Vernon tucked something into his jacket pocket that was long, oblong and had an intense but dark blue light on it.

It looked like a gun.

It probably _was_ a gun.

Uncle Vernon was planning to _shoot_ someone?

Harry's train of thought steamed through the station marked 'fear' and settled in for the long haul.

Uncle Vernon ordered them all out of the car, telling them to get their things. Since Harry didn't have any 'things' and his soldiers were already in his pocket, Aunt Petunia ordered him to carry the corner shop bag. He noticed that there were three adult meals in it, and one tiny child's meal. He couldn't say it wasn't expected though, and he sighed.

"Come on, you lot! This way, no more... freakishness, no more _letters_!" said Uncle Vernon, as if these two things where the same. Aunt Petunia looked rather worried as they followed Vernon down a slope, towards something that made a hissing and roaring noise. That was almost as frightening as the fact that _his Uncle had a gun_. Almost.

As they passed, streetlamps detected their movement and flicked themselves on, shedding harsh light on the steps in front of them. When they reached the bottom, Harry realised that it wasn't some sort of monster or giant machine that was making all that noise, it was _waves_ , they really had made it to the sea... Vernon didn't pause though, so Harry had to make a few extra quick steps to catch up.

He led them to a small boat, a ferry really, slightly square and hooked onto ropes that led away into the darkness of the water. What struck Harry was that nowhere was there the glow of a light or anything that looked a motor on the thing. As they got closer he realised that it was made out of wood! Harry couldn't believe it was floating, let alone that it would take them anywhere... it really should have been in a museum.

Vernon climbed in without hesitation, the rest followed, and Harry crossed his fingers in hope that they would survive.


	2. Revelations

That night, sitting in a hut on a tiny island, devoid of power, computers or heat, they ate the self cooking meals, tried to set fire to the wrappers, then gave up and went to 'bed'. Harry was stuck with the floor, but it wasn't too bad. He made sport out of watching a spider looking for and chasing little bugs in the dark. He was pretty sure Dudley couldn't see in light as bad as this, so he felt safe letting the little arachnid crawl over his hand. Eventually, Dudley's watch clicked 'round to midnight, glowing blue briefly as it switched from having a face full of little segments of time to being empty, with one slowly filling in.

Harry blew gently on the spider so it rolled off the back on his hand and onto the floor, were it rolled across the dirt for a bit, (dirt! Not only was this place made of wood, but the floor was made of SOIL!) Before springing its legs out and scuttling away.

Harry shuffled over to the drawing he'd made and bit his lip. It was a bit sadlooking, really, but it had the right number of 'candles'. In any case, he blew at the dust near the far side of the drawing until the 'candle flames' had been obliterated.

"Happy Birthday Harry." With that, he rolled over to go to sleep, pulling the musty, slightly damp, blanket around his shoulders.

 _thrumThrumTHRUM_ THRUM BOOM!

Harry sat up abruptly, dropping the blanket, as light sliced in through the windows. That sounded like a vertical Lander! He'd seen a vid of one once, at school, they had downwards pointing propulsion engines, like cars, only incredibly powerful and they could land on under three square meters, and, and...

The information Harry had picked up rushed through his mind, saving the best until last, _they were VC'd_. Like the ship at the Colonial Museum, like the barrier that Dudley had gotten stuck behind. Needless to say, Harry was very excited. So excited, in fact, that he didn't notice that he was also terrified, at the same time, not until the door was knocked down, with a noise like a small cannon. He scrambled to his feet and crouched behind the arm of the sofa, watching the door and trying not to breathe too loudly.

Harry stared in open mouthed shock and Dudley screamed and leapt gracelessly over the back of the sofa to hide when a very large silhouette filled the empty doorway. His Aunt and Uncle burst out of their 'bedroom'; Harry realised what the gun was for, then.

The blue light glowed brightly then narrowed to a beam that his Uncle aimed waveringly at the newcomer's chest.

"Don't come any closer!" Vernon yelled. When Harry looked up, he realised that Vernon's face was going puce again; never a good sign.

"Here now, no need fo' tha'!" the newcomer filled the entire doorway, Harry realised, and only small shards of light could be seen around him. He had to _duck_ under the lintel, even; he was HUGE! Harry, being newly eleven, watched in awe. "Oh, I'd better be fixin tha' now too..." Easy as picking up a pie, he leaned down and picked up the door he'd knocked off its hinges and put it back in the hole.

"Get out, Get out! We don't need your kind here!" the way his Uncle said 'your kind' reminded Harry of the innumerable times he'd been scolded for his freakishness and he cocked his head at the giant with the blue dot on his chest.

"Tha's quite enough on tha', I reckon. Put t' gun down." Now that Harry could see the man's face he realised that he _couldn't_ see the man's face because it was _covered_ in beard. Even his eyebrows looked like beard!

"I will not, this is breaking and entering, no one would think twice if I shot you!" Harry was aghast at that, he didn't like his Uncle, but he hadn't though he was a killer, and that targeting dot was still over the trespassers heart!

"Wi' wha gun?" That shut Vernon up. He glanced down at the weapon in his hand, opening his mouth and frowning, and was about to reply when the blue dot vanished and sparks erupted from his hand. He squealed like a pig and his hand jerked reflexively, dropping the sparking object to the floor, were it sparked once more, and then died.

Harry suppressed a snort at the goldfish look on his uncle's face, though he still felt nervous enough about the massive great big man -- who could, apparently, fly a VC and explode guns with his mind -- to avoid drawing attention.

"Now then, 'Arry, where are ye? I go' a little something for ya." The strange man looked down at himself and started patting down his massive coat."I know i'is ere somewhere..."

"You know me?" Harry blurted out, without thinking, getting glared at by his relatives for it.

"O' course I do, 'Arry!" he said, delving into a deep pocket, "E'ry VC pilot in the 'verse knows o' 'Arry Potter. Ah, there we go, I mighta sa' on it, but i' should still be good." He pulled out a slightly crumpled box. "I's not jus' tha' though, I knew yer parents, lad. Mighty good friends they were." He handed over the box to Harry, who was trembling slightly. On auto pilot, he opened the box to find an only slightly misshapen cake, covered in brown icing and the words "Happy Birtdau" scrawled on top in large, red letters, the tail of the 'Y' had been smudged off by the corner of the box, which had caved in. It smelled wonderful, like chocolate and butter icing; Harry couldn't feel happier, or more confused, than he did right then.

"We've met, afore ye was old enough ta remember, couple 'a times. Me name's Hagrid, Keeper of the Codes of the Battle Cruiser Hogwarts." Hagrid, pleased with his introduction and not caring much about what the Dursley's thought, settled his large frame onto the sofa. It creaked alarmingly and sagged under his bulk.

Harry looked up from his cake, absently closing the box and half wrapping his arms around it defensively. "You knew Mum and Dad?" Harry's voice was small and his eyes big and he took a step towards Hagrid. "You're a VC pilot?"

"Aye, and aye. Don't look so shocked! Ye be one too, after all. Ain't all that strange..." Hagrid was blushing as he said it but Harry wasn't looking. All he could think of was that phrase,

"I'm sorry Hagrid... you've got the wrong Harry... I'm not a pilot, I'm just Harry. Just useless old Harry." He held out the cake box, thrusting it back at Hagrid. "You must be thinking of someone else." He felt like he was about to break into a hundred little pieces, finally someone cared about _a_ Harry Potter, knew about _his_ parents, but... it had to be someone else. His throat was closing up and he didn't think he could speak any more.

Meanwhile, the Dursley's were subjected to a most ferocious and terrifying glare before Hagrid turned back to Harry, gently pushing the box back towards him.

"You listen to me now, 'Arry James Potter! I was _there_ when your Ma gave you that name! I taught your Da and Godfat'er to ride their bikes! I carried you to these lummoxes after the attack... the night you got that scar." Hagrid took hold of Harry's shoulders, holding him firmly and wishing he'd look up.

"My parents died in an accident... they were drunk..." Harry protested weakly. "A bit of glass hit me..."

At that point, though Harry didn't notice, the Dursleys escaped the room, terrified of Hagrid's wrath and hudded in the back.

"Oh 'Arry... no, yer parents... James an' Lily, they died in the war... they died protectin what they loved, protectin you." Hagrid found himself tearing up; the Potter's deaths had been hard, confusing, coming as it had together with the news of the Blight's retreat. "You forget now, what them useless mudders 've told yeh."

"Ye've got the look of yer father, and yer mother's eyes..." He tipped Harry's chin up with a beefy finger, "Yer the right 'Arry, 'Arry James Potter, and ye've been accept'd inta Hogwarts Academy of Body Tech and Piloting. Ye name's been on the list since ye were born."

"No, I've never done anything! I'm not some amazing person! Stop teasing me!" Seeing that Harry was about to break into hysterics, Hagrid picked him up bodily and set him on his knee.

"I ain' teasin, Arry... ain nothing e'er appened whot cannae be explained? Ain't the barriers been weird, done summat jus cause you wan'ed em to? Or the screens?"

Harry fell silent, his head resting on Hagrid's shoulder; he'd never sat on someone before. _It feels really weird._ Now that Hagrid had put it like that, yes, there had been weirdly convenient power surges in barriers, like that time at school and at the museum. And every time, Uncle Vernon had punished him for it, as if it was his fault. But how could _he_ have made these things happen?

"What 'a these planet-bound lumps been tellin ya 'Arry? Yer parents where VC pilots, damn fine ones, and yerself can be too, if ye work 'ard. I ain't expectin miracles, 'rion knows yer Da' took 'is time growin into it, but I be _knowin_ ye can do it."

Hagrid could feel Harry's bony frame shaking slightly against his chest and he gave his best effort to keep his anger at the Dursleys locked up.

"Ok." Harry was almost too quiet to hear over the sound of waves, he coughed to clear his throat. "Okay. I'll go with you." Hagrid gave him a tight squeeze, making his ribs creak,

"Ther's me boy, courage, lad, 's part a who ye are." Hagrid glanced out of the windows to check the weather, then at the door behind which the Dursleys were cowering, and made his mind up.

"Righ' then! Ye 'ave some o' tha cake, 'Arry. Appy Birthday and all tha. I'll be givin ye yer presen' tomorrow. Cannae fly out today." Hagrid lifted the too-light Harry again and stuck him in the corner of the sofa.

"The wind's picked up since you got here." Harry commented looking out of the window and thinking how hard it would be to take off while being blown about so much and remembering how the sky highways were surrounded by wind barriers.

"Tha's right, 'Arry. See, we'll make a pilot of yeh yet." Harry looked down at the box in his hands, feeling his throat close up a little again, exhausted by the revelations of the last half hour. Slowly he opened the box, took out a small piece and nibbled. It was the best thing he'd ever tasted.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

By the time he'd finished his slice of cake it was almost one in the morning, and Harry was getting beyond sleepy. He didn't want to close his eyes though, just in case Hagrid disappeared.

"What were they like?" He asked in a tremulous, anxious little voice.

"Well... first time I met yer Da... Ah, he was a rigt' lil monster 'e was! Teasing an' runnin' an' yellin about the loading bay." Hagrid shifted his weight around on the other end of the short sofa, making Harry's end shift around too.

"Can't say 'e was perfect but 'e learned though. From yer Ma."

"See, 'e were born up top, see? Now there's them that think low o' earth-born, specialy thems whos parents and gran'parents was born up there, who's Da's were born up there. Load o tosh if ye ask me! Yer Da' now, 'e din' know any earth-born till 'e met yer mum, an he loved her the day he heard her voice, so 'e forgot all abou' any earth-born, sky-born nonsense. 'e learned good and proper how ta be kind and gentle wit' that wat wa'n't as strong as 'e, all cause of yer mum.

She were such a good soul 'Arry! All the good anyone 'ad in em, came out if they met Lily." Hagrid deliberately didn't look at Harry as he spoke; he knew that they'd both break down if he did.

"They were summat to see, out in the black." Harry was briefly puzzled by that phrase but soon worked it out; his parents were pilots, VC pilots, and good ones, so the 'black' must mean space. "There wa'n't a turn James coul'n't make or a shot Lily couldn't hit. Heroes, they were, 'Arry. Saved a lot o' lives, 'tween the two o' them."

"Listen ta me 'Arry, they did everythin, _everythin_ , they could to get home ta each other, but once ye were on the way, well... there wan't anything more important than keepin you safe. Not to them."

Hagrid finally looked at the tiny, frail child, finding brilliant green eyes full of tears. "C'mere," He muttered and gathered Harry up into his massive coat and holding him against his chest, feeling him shake again.

"Once we got word that t'enemy was after Lily and James an you, the whole Fleet couldn' 'ave kept 'em on the fron' lines. They backed off, wen' inta hidin. No one knew were they'd gone cept Admiral Dumbledore and a friend o' theirs by t'name of Peter. But... the Dark Lord, the leader of the enemy, he woul'n' stop for anythin'.

He got hold'a Peter, somehow, turned 'im against yer Mum an' Da'... we don' know how it 'appened, 'Arry... but when I go' te yer ship... well... Yer Mum an Da' were dead an the Dark Lord, V-Voldemort, was gone. Blasted out an air lock.

Summit 'appened, 'Arry, just when you got tha' scar, an' the war was over."

Harry was past the point of sobbing and had moved on to leaking tears and snuffling quietly. He reached up and touched the star-burst burn on his forehead, a silvery white, overly smooth patch of skin just over his right eyebrow. It had never meant much to him before, but now it had a whole new meaning.

"Tha's why yer famous in the sky, 'Arry, every one know's yer name, everyone will recognise yer scar. It's a secret from t' earth-bound, but I though' yed like te be warned." He could feel Harry's shaking subside and shifted about so he could half lie down, with Harry curled up on his chest.

"Thank you, Hagrid. Thank you so much..." Harry murmured still wiping tears away every few seconds. "Uncle Vernon said... he said that my Dad killed himself and Mum 'cause he crashed on the skyway, cause he was drunk..." He felt Hagrid's hug tighten for a second, "The truth is worth crying, even if I am a boy."

Hagrin chuckled, "Now, boy's can cry too, much as they want! See, I remember, yer Da's firs' trip 'way from home, at Hogwarts, once all tha' excitemen' an energy was gone. Found 'im in me pumpkin patch, I did! Cryin on about his Ma and his ol' shipmates. Missed 'em summat terrible. But tell ye what? He felt right better after cryin' 'bout it. So, you cry 'Arry. Much as you want."

He felt Harry nod somewhere below his beard, then a long, expectant pause drew out. The tension in Harry's shoulder's and the nervous little movements of his hands made it obvious that he still had something to say.

"I... I always hated them... for dying and leaving me with... with _them_... I can stop, now, can't I?"

"Aye, lad. There's no call fer tha'..."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Harry felt when Hagrid fell asleep; the man began to snore very quietly. It was like lying on one of Mrs Figgs' cats when it was really, really happy. After Harry's final question, they had lapsed into a slightly frightened silence, eventually relaxing and muttering 'good nights'. Harry had stayed awake a bit longer, thinking about the picture he now had of his parents, good and happy people, who fought a war to maintain the freedom of the people they cared about...

Harry had good dreams that night. Sad, melancholy, but good dreams.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Harry had guessed right, Hagrid's ride was a vertical-Lander. It was also incredibly cool. The 'ship' looked like a small airplane with steeply swept back wings and three large propulsion drives, one on each wing and the last, largest, in the tail. The fuselage measured around twenty feet long, though Harry just knew that it was big. Too big for the island they had taken refuge on. This puzzled him, until his eyes adjusted to the light and he saw the undercarriage. Made up of three collapsible struts near the propulsion drives, it had adjusted so that the craft was perched level, even though one of the struts was gripping an out crop of rock that was practically sideways.

Harry thought they looked a lot like bird claws.

The whole thing was gleaming white in the sun and silver were the paint had been scoured off by long use and lots of stellar dust. Harry was so enamoured by it that he didn't notice the tense conversation going on behind him until it got to the shouting stage;

"..not having him back, you hear me?" Vernon Dursley was getting progressively closer to the dreaded 'puce'.

"ye can' do tha'! Yer his only family, Mrs Dursley, 'es yer _sisters_ son. AN' he's only eleven." Hagrid was confused and beginning to get angry, "Yeh can' jus' throw 'im out!"

"We most certainly can! On no document anywhere does it say we have responsibility for that... that soulless _Freak!_ " Petunia's long face got even longer and more equine as she turned her nose up at Hagrid, "Took it in out of the goodness of our hearts and all it did was eat our Dudley's food and take the clothes off his back!"

Hagrid opened his mouth, but was cut off by Vernon;

"I'll put up with his freakishness no longer! He doesn't belong here, with the normal human beings." He was getting more and more self-inflated as his statements wore on, and there was nothing Hagrid could do to stop it.

"That's right, if I ever see that brat again, I'll report him to the Authorities! I'll not have _that_ contaminating my son any longer!"

With that, the over-inflated, lobster coloured creature that Hagrid could not, in clear conscience, call human, turned and took his wife back into the hut. Hagrid felt sick at their treatment of his young friend, sick and deeply saddened. He gave a heavy sigh and turned back to his ship, and Harry. The boys shoulders had drooped and he looked at his feet rather than the ship, so Hagrid figured that he had heard at least some of the conversation.

"'m sorry 'Arry..." He really didn't know what to say, if Harry had been crying, that was one thing, but his resigned loneliness was something Hagrid hoped never to see again.

"That's OK, I never want to come back anyway." Hagrid could hardly believe that this tiny little child was only eleven; the look on his face was so old and wise and fragile.

"Righ' then. Time teh go."

Whatever Harry had been expecting it wasn't to be picked up by the huge pilot, swung into the air and deposited on the man's left shoulder. From his lofty perch he could see the top section of the fuselage, including the cockpit. Unlike the Fighter he had seen in the museum, the cockpit was air filled and much bigger, with two seats, one behind the other.

"Steps, Norberta." Hagrid said, getting an odd glance from Harry, who was clinging to his shoulder with both hands. When Harry looked back at the ship, 'she' had lowered the fuselage a couple of feet and a set of footholds had appeared in the side. They seemed very small compared to the size of Hagrid's feet, but he managed to get up with little difficulty. The glass that covered the cockpit apparently wasn't glass at all; it slid back into the rim of the cockpit like water off an invisible dome.

"Umm.. excus- ahh! Whoa!" Harry squealed and flailed a little when Hagrid plucked him off his shoulder, with _one hand,_ and lowered him into the back seat. Once there any further protests were silenced by the awe he was feeling.

"N-n-norberta?" he said, half to himself and half in question. Hagrid didn't hear as he rearranged his bulk and struggled to ease himself into the pilot's chair, but Norberta did. A vid screen popped up suddenly in front of Harry, showing a _lot_ of text. It was titled with "NOR 1.6.3. – The Norberta" and had a rotating image of the ship in flight, which changed into a schematic as he was watching.

"Oh _cool_." Harry poked the screen, making the image enlarge.

"Wha's tha' 'Arry? Ere, put this on." A small squiggle of black plastic landed in Harry's lap, ejected from a cubby in the wall of the cockpit as the clear dome slid back over their heads. Momentarily distracted from the ship's manifest, he picked up the object and examined it. It was vaguely ear shaped and looked a little like Uncle Vernon's car phone. Fiddling with it, he realised that the ear-shaped piece would fit nicely around behind his glasses arm so that the middle bit was in his ear. Some more fumbling later had the thing fitted and a little 'bing' sounded in his ear.

"Hagrid? Why do I have a phone?" Harry asked, slightly anxious that Hagrid would ask him to call someone, since he'd never used a phone before.

"Tha's a HFR, little gadget so's we can 'ear each other once I've done this!" There was a click from the front, and the propulsion drives wound up with a noise much, MUCH louder than the sound his Uncle's car made. "High Freq'ency Radio. Good fer talkin, don' interfere with the ship. Don' go nowhere wi'out i'." Hagrid's voice came through the radio loud and as understandable as ever.

As Hagrid spoke to Norberta, flicked switches and spoke over the radio to some local flight control... thing, Harry looked around the cockpit with insatiable curiosity. After all, despite his mature attitude towards his 'guardians', he was still an eleven-year-old, VC obsessed little boy, he was easily distracted.

The inner walls of the cockpit were some black material that gave slightly when he poked it, the same stuff that made up his seat, only not as soft. At about Harry's shoulder height, Hagrid chest height, the walls gave way to the dome window. Looking out, Harry could see the sea, for the first time in daylight, and the hut and little ferry that had brought them out here. He couldn't believe how _silly_ his Uncle had been when Hagrid had just flown in, easy as pie! No one was in sight, not even at the windows, so Harry looked away, feeling a little down again. He was homeless now, he supposed. It was obvious that Hogwarts would still accept him, or Hagrid wouldn't be taking him, but what about holidays? Did the Academy even _have_ holidays like normal schools? Why did his relatives hate the idea of having a VC pilot in the family? Did he really not have a soul? Could he work for the school over the holidays? Maybe then he could stay there. He could cook and clean and everything, he'd work the hardest he ever had. Maybe he should beg Hagrid, and then he wouldn't put him in the dreaded _orphanage_ that Uncle had threatened him with! Or maybe the headmaster, did Academies have headmasters?

Harry's breathing started to speed up as he worked himself up, and his heart rate was increasing. A small vid screen popped up next to Hagrid's radar, floating insistently in front of the artificial horizon. As he peered at it, a readout of vital signs appeared, Harry's heart and respiration rates were in the orange and Norberta had put a label on them:

"Increasing. Cause: stress. Suggestion: distraction."

And had popped up a holographic letter with the Hogwarts ship-and-stars symbol and Harry's name on it.

"Righ' ye are, lass. Give tha' lad his letter." Hagrid said, turning his earpiece off for a moment then back on to talk to Harry;

"'Arry, look at me, all fergetfull! Yer letter shud come up in a mo'." He watched the readout for a moment longer, seeing the numbers stop rising, before he had to go back to negotiating his flight path with the irritating Planetary Airspace Association. He kept half an eye on the screen though, until Norberta turned it off.


	3. Meetings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enter Severus Snape.

 

 

Actually having the letter, the data there, where he could see it made this... fairy tale seem real; the first page was a formally worded version of what Hagrid had already told him, that he had the capability to pilot VC's and that his parents had signed him up before they died. The mention of their Will made his throat tighten up but the fact that he was going somewhere where people had actually _known_ them was pretty comforting, in a strange way that made nervous energy buzz in the centre of his chest. He didn't think he could handle another story about them right now, though.

The second page was more interesting, and more distressing.

"Hagrid, where can you buy a 'Basic gel-ferm unit–#2' in London? Or an 'EMN Interface'! I've never heard of some of this stuff, and I don't have any money!" There was a note of panic in his voice; the things on the list were labelled 'essential', maybe he _would_ have to go back after all!

"'Ere now, calm down. Yeh don' think yer parent's left yeh with nothin', did yeh?" Hagrid's voice wasn't nearly as good at calming him down as his hug had been, but it still helped, even if he didn't get what he meant just yet.

"They left ye' a vault in trust wit' the Swiss. Yeh not teh used it wit' out the Keeper o' Codes tho, its fer school stuff, an' pocket money." Harry, open mouthed at this news, "An' it just so 'appens that I's got yer Code, right 'ere."

What Hagrid didn't mention was that Dumbledore had said to accompany the Durselys to the Swiss Bank, Gringotts, and give them the key to spend the money on Harry's education. He'd assumed, despite the restraining order, that they would be reluctant to let Harry go and would meet Hagrid again in London to get Harry's things. They had assumed that Harry would stay with them for the last month before the Transport left for Hogwarts. That definitely wouldn't be happening now... Harry could stay with Hagrid if that's what it came down to, though zipping all over the country picking up Earth-born, children who had no family history of VC training, children who would be confused, and stressed, wouldn't be the best way to spend your last few weeks on-planet.

Not to mention, he would sometimes need the second seat. He sighed, asking Norberta to bank slightly to avoid coming too close to Heathrow International Airport's main landing trajectory.

"And I can get all this stuff in London?" Harry sounded a bit blown away, he certainly felt like he would blow away, all these things were just a bit much for one little boy to handle.

"Aye, it's all there. 's only available ta VC'ers tho, so I ain't surprised yeh ain' heard of it." Hagrid adjusted course again. This was why he preferred orbital flying, fewer obstacles.

"And I'm _really_ allowed a pet?" Harry couldn't help but be tentatively excited at that one; he'd always liked the animals that he sometimes saw in the garden at the Dursleys.

"Aye, 'Arry. We'll be stopping at t'pet shop." Hagrid was looking forwards to that trip, since Harry's birthday present was waiting at the shop. "Yeh Da had a Snizzler, an' Lily had a cat, little tiny thing it was, liked zero-g."

"Right... ok..." Harry, a little overwhelmed, let the conversation lie, looking out of the dome at the landing 'Byran Air' transport that was going down to Heathrow below them, at a much lower altitude. Ahead but far to the left was the take off strip and he could see, if he craned his neck, the queue of ships waiting on a massive Sky Liner to perform its lumbering takeoff. He wondered how big Hogwarts was, if it could house the entire school, like it said on the letter. How big was the school, anyway? He didn't feel like talking anymore though, so he just left it; he'd find out soon anyway.

"'Ere, breakfast." An oblong object covered in plastic landed in his lap and he picked it up by one corner to examine. "Strawberry 'n... somethin, I reckon." Hagrid clarified. The bar was about four, five inches long and an inch wide. When he tore the plastic off, he discovered a sort of ...hardened gum, or resin, that smelt faintly of fruit with a layer of white that, when he licked it, tasted of yogurt. The first bite confirmed that the chewy, sticky substance was in fact edible and strawberry flavoured.

He gave a massive yawn after he'd swallowed the first bite. He settled back in his seat, idly opening the mail from "NOR 1.6.3." that was still flashing 'unread' on the vid screen. The file opened up to the same page of text as the Norberta had shown him before and he settled in to read about Vertical-Landers, and eat his breakfast.

He fell asleep around ten minutes later; it had been a late night.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Hagrid brought Norberta down very softly when they reached their destination, the VC rack in the air above Vertic Alley. Getting out of the cockpit was easier than getting in, especially when the rear seat was installed, and he climbed down to the landing deck. Once there, he brought up a vid screen from Norberta's hull and opened a link to the Hogwarts staff room. There was a lot that needed to be said.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Aboard Battle Cruiser Hogwarts,

Current status: charging reservoirs. 120 Mkm orbit about Solaris, orbital time: 228 days, orbit commonly known as: 'just west of Venus'.

Current location of Senior Staff: Staff room.

Status: drinking tea.

"The virus the Twins left behind has finally cleared up. Honestly, Headmaster, those two...!" Their final prank of the year had been rather spectacular, changing all the networked vid screens a brilliant, lemon yellow. Dumbledore thought that that particular choice of colour had been a dip of the wing in his direction.

"I'm glad to hear it, Minerva," Whatever he was going to say next was forgotten as Severus, on vid link from the Leaky Airlock on Terra, interrupted.

"It's about time! The level of cheek displayed by those boys is without parallel. I do hope you found a sufficient punishment for them." The fierce professor was obviously busy; he was facing to the right of the vid screen, doing something with beakers and a colorimeter. When he next spoke it was obvious by his posture that he was talking to someone off screen; "No, this will _not_ do. If you are incapable of providing Grade 6 semi-liquid matrix that performs to function, Hogwarts will not be renewing its contract this year! ... Indeed. See that you do."

"They won't know what hit them, Severus, don't you worry." Minerva replied when he glanced back at the screen, looking amused at his brow-beating.

As Severus completed his transaction, the three remaining Heads of Departments discussed current housing issues that had cropped up with the replies from first year cadets. Things like animal and food allergies caused problems every year and took some negotiation to settle down.

Once Severus returned fully to the discussion, working alone on some substance or other and able to pay attention, they returned to more important topics.

"Minerva, the modifications in transponder signals issued by the Ministry will need to be programmed in before the Transport arrives, it will be on the new system." Dumbledore had got through the immense pile of files on his desk just that morning, it took far too much datawork to run a cruiser, he thought with a mental sigh.

"Of course, Headmaster, I'll get on it as soon as I receive the files, it shouldn't take long. Ms. Tonks and I completed the Comms overhaul in record time this year, the system's as clean as a whistle." Severus thought she looked rather insufferably smug.

"I intend to return before the Transport, if you would inform me of the new transponder code when it comes into effect, I would be grateful; I do not fancy Jumping to the wrong side of the star in the near future." He felt smug himself when that took the wind out of Minerva's sails,

"Of course, Severus; I will be putting out a bulletin." She took a sip of her tea, looking a little put out.

"Ah, that reminds me, do you have any further requests regarding this resupply, Pomona?" He said, waving an incubating dish containing an obscure microorganism at the camera.

"Well, there have been no changes since the end of term meeting; the garden is enjoying our orbit. However..." The slightly grubby Head of Hydroponics smiled slightly,

"Yes, Yes, if I find anything interesting, you'll be the first to know, I assure you." He looked amused, "The First year's vaccinations have come in, I will be picking them up this afte-"

" _KZZZSST_ Hogwarts actual, this is Hagrid calling from the Norberta, come in." The interruption phased Severus for only a moment as he tapped his screen to link in to the new signal, frowning.

"Hagrid, this is actual; what's wrong?" Dumbledore replied, bringing Hagrid up on screen next to Severus so they could all see him.

"Ah.. P'fessor Dumbledore... It's 'Arry." The four Heads of Departments looked tense, there were no problems expected from that corner, his family had always known that he would be coming to Hogwarts eventually, but the Terran government would lose their hold on him then, and that could cause ... _problems,_ of the political kind. Severus had more than suspected the brat would arrive, certain in the idea that he knew everything and could do anything but _that_ wouldn't give Hagrid reason to be concerned. An uncomfortable suspicion began to creep up on him;

"What is it man, spit it out!" he snapped, the effect only slightly dampened by distance.

"His family... they've disowned 'im. Fer being a VCer."

Shock. For a good few minutes, someone or other would try to speak, come up with nothing, and close their mouth again.

Eventually, Severus began to collect himself and he was the first to speak.

"And? There is always more, when this happens." His voice was weary; they had all seen this happen before, that it was the Sky's Golden Boy made it particularly bad.

"He's... thin. Light, small. An... an' e' looks old, like... like there ain' no fantasy left in 'im." Hagrid's voice was cracking,

"Disillusioned, I believe is the word you are looking for."

After that, they had to sit in silence for a time; eventually the Second in Command took a deep breath,

"But, she was Lily's sister..." Minerva mumbled,

"Family means little to people like that," Severus retorted, without his usual venom, "I'm sorry to disillusion you." His sneer fell flat and he sighed.

"I take it he is with you then, my boy?" Dumbledore asked, the twinkle gone from his eye.

"Aye, I promised I'd take 'im away from them bastards, an I kept my promise." Hagrids hand came into view as he punched something into the screen. A little box popped up in the corner, showing the sleeping Harry, glasses askew, cheek resting on his restrainer, fast asleep. Since they could all see his face, but his eyes were closed, he felt it necessary to elaborate;

"'e's got 'is Ma's eyes." Severus had to turn away from the screen then, just in case his face did something embarrassing. He was thin and pale and pitiful and _his best friends only son_. How could he not be moved? He could hear Flitwick begin to swear quietly, Sprout was practically growling and Dumbledore was utterly silent until Minerva began gearing up for a tirade of epic proportions

"We should have checked on him! I knew that Dursley was bad news... why I should like to give him a piece of my mind!"

"Thank you, Minerva. That will do; circumventing a restraining order is both illegal and dangerous." Admonished the Headmaster. "Severus, I believe we would all feel reassured if you could give the boy a physical, as you are both in Vertic Alley."

"Yes, of course... It will be limited; I do not have all my equipment here, but the sooner the better." The Headmaster could already see the wheels turning in his Chief Medical Officer's head,

"Very well, Severus, Hagrid, we will leave you to make arrangements. We will make enquieries as to his official status in the mean time. Sky speed, my boys."

"Sky speed, Admiral." Severus replied, switching off his screen. Hagrid lingered a moment longer,

"They di'n't even tell 'im how 'is parents died... said it were a car crash..." He looked like the shock was catching up to him a little,

"We'll look after him, Hagrid."

"Aye, 'Eadmaster, Sky speed." The vid window closed, leaving an Admiral, a second in Command and two Heads of Department feeling deeply shocked, with a healthy amount of sorrow and anger mixed in.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Harry woke up when Hagrid's large shadow fell over his face, blocking out the sun that had been keeping him warm.

"C'mon now, lad. We're 'ere."

He blinked against the light when Hagrid retreated -it hurt his eyes- and sat up. Norberta kindly released his restrainer and he pushed the bars back up to where he'd found them. He stood up carefully and looked over the edge of the cockpit for Hagrid. The man was standing on the ground looking up at him,

"Come over t' edge backwards an put yer foot there, like ye's climbin down a ladder." Hagrid pointed out the first toe-hold for him and he did as instructed, swinging one leg over and into the hold. Since he couldn't see where to put his feet, Hagrid did it for him, grabbing a hold of his heel and directing his feet to the right places. "There, that's far enough. C'mere."

Now that Harry was a couple of steps down, Hagrid could get a hold of him and lifted him down the rest of the way.

"Now then. It so 'appens that one o' yer professors is in t' Alley today," Hagrid explained as he brushed Harry down in a vain attempt to de-wrinkle his over-large t-shirt. "'E's just on t' vid, now."

Hagrid turned a floating vid screen towards them and Snape's face came into view.

"Mr Potter, good afternoon. My name is Severus Snape; I'm the chief medical officer aboard Hogwarts and I'll be teaching you Organic Electronics, next month." Severus managed to keep a straight and neutral face as he introduced himself, but it wasn't easy. Harry Potter should have been called Harry Evans; his eyes made him look so much like his mother. The striking resemblance to his father... well, it was easy to over look the messy hair and cheap glasses, suspecting and knowing what he did about his family.

"ni-" Harry coughed to clear his throat, he must have been asleep for a while, his throat was all dry. "Nice to meet you, um... Officer Snape?"

Severus wanted to smile; it was like meeting Lily all over again, only smaller. He didn't, but that was more a matter of principle than anything else.

"Students are asked to address teachers as 'Sir' or 'Professor', though 'Officer' is also correct." Severus glanced over to Hagrid's image, "Hagrid, I have a monopoly on a table here and my negotiations are complete, perhaps you could join me for some lunch?"

"Aye, Severus. Tha' sounds grand, we'll be right there." Hagrid and the professor exchanged nods and turned off the connection. The Vid screen made a tone, then dissolved into nothing. "Go tah sleep, Norberta, there's a good lass."

The ship shifted a little as her struts locked and she sealed herself off from the outside world. The dome slid up, water-like again, to seal the cockpit, the toe-holds vanished and even the propulsion engines had covers that slid across to protect them.

"Now then, lad," Hagrid took him by the shoulder and led him over to the edge of the VC rack where they had landed. "Welcome to Vertic Alley!"

Spread out below him was a long street of sparkling white, full of people in outlandish clothes and barrier and vid signs covered in moving, brightly coloured adverts. There were people on foot, people on flying bikes, there were even a pair of young boys racing down the street on hover boards!

A harassed looking man on one of the strange, flying bikes whizzed up past Hagrid and Harry, making him look up. The rack they had landed on was a massive stack of landing platforms, each offset slightly from the one above around a central pillar, forming a spiral. As he watched, the sun caught on the wings of a heavy carrier, a ship bigger and less aerodynamic than the Norberta, as it took off, lumbering into the sky with the rushing biker on board.

"This place..." He looked back down into the street, watching one of the signs advertising 'Highest quality thermocouples on the market!' flash to a hologram of the product, "Is _awesome_."

Hagrid just grinned and led him down the stairs. They made it to the bottom before the questions started;

"Where are we going?" Hagrid opened his mouth to answer but got ridden over, " _That's_ the pet shop? What _are_ they?" It was damn good to see the enthusiasm in Harry; perhaps things weren't as bad as they thought... fingers crossed.

"We're goin to tha 'Leaky Airlock', 's a pub over there." He pointed to the nearer end of the Alley, where a large Hologram of a circular airlock was giving off a delicate plume of fake smoke. "An' yes. Tha' _is_ the pet shop and they're chimera. Ye don't think any old animal can handle livin' in _space_ , do ya?" Harry was about to protest that his Mum had had a cat, but got distracted by the gecko-mice and the fact that the _Academy was in space?_

"I'm going to SPACE?" Hagrid looked a little taken aback by that. "In a _month?_ "

The shocked look on Harry's face was truly comical, Hagrid couldn't help himself. "o' course yer goin ta space, Hogwarts is in orbit around Solaris ri' now." He pointed straight up, at the sun.

Harry appeared to go into shock, staring at Hagrid. He hadn't really processed the fact that he was being thrown out of the Dursleys yet, this was really too much. He was still chewing on that idea when Hagrid picked him up and sat him down on something. Harry just leant his elbow on whatever was next to him and plunked his chin down on his hand.

"Well, bloody hell."

All in all, he thought he was justified in his response.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Good afternoon, Hagrid. School business?"

"Aye, Tom. Jus' getting this lump 'is school supplies." He gestured with his free hand up at Harry, who looked to be miles away, sitting on Hagrid's shoulder and leaning on his head with his chin in his palm. Hagrid's other hand was fastened securely around Harry's legs so that if the boy suddenly realised where he was, there would be no falling and breaking of heads.

"You'll want lunch, then?" Said the old bar keeper, wiping dry a clean glass.

"Aye, we'll be with the P'fessor," He pointed over to Severus' table, unable to nod due to the lemur on his shoulder.

"Ah! I was wondering why he ordered three plates. They'll be over in a mo'." Tom jerked a thumb at his rather harassed looking daughters who were dishing out people's orders.

"Yeh really must hire 'em some 'elp. Yer too busy!" Tom waved him off with a good natured grimace and looked up at Harry again. His hands went still...

"Here, Hagrid... that's _him,_ isn't it?" Hagrid's expression went grave,

"Aye. They coul'n't keep 'im any longer." He said, his voice low to avoid attracting attention.

"About bloody time, I say... you look after him, Hagrid, you hear me?"

"Aye Tom, aye."

They parted and Hagrid began to weave his way between full tables towards Severus; Harry gave no indication that he'd paid any attention whatsoever to the conversation.

The black-uniformed Officer stood up as they approached, smirking. "You appeared to have made a trip to the pet-shop already, what is that, a parrokey?"

"Not a parrot!" Apparently Harry wasn't as off with the AI's as he'd thought. "You can put me down now, Hagrid..." He said, sounding faintly embarrassed. "Hello again, Professor Snape."

"Indeed, Mr Potter." Severus watched as Harry was set down on the floor, his feet taking his weight easily. He detected no tremors or signs of rickets, as Harry brushed himself down, though the boy seemed to be squinting a little. At least his skin was not jaundiced or visibly bruised, and it _would_ have been visible, as pale as he was. He held his hand out to the boy, "Welcome to the crew of Hogwarts, Harry Potter."

Harry didn't really know what to say to that. He imagined the Cruiser, an enormous edifice of metal, orbiting many millions of kilometres away, around their star and then tried to link the image to himself; he thought it was probably impossible. In any case, he knew what to do with the presented hand and grasped it firmly, even though his hand didn't _really_ reach around the Professors. He was released after a brief shake, during which Severus looked at him intensely, and sat down at the table next to Hagrid once the professor had seated himself.

By unspoken agreement the two adults gave Harry a bit of a break at that point, talking about things that he would either have no interest in or would not have the vocabulary to follow, freeing him to look around and calm down.

He had a chance to take a closer look at the strange clothes people were wearing; they all seemed to share something, though he hadn't worked out what yet. The professors black uniform seem to consist mostly of a coat that ended at around his knees and had an open collar, were his rank and insignia was displayed. He had two silver bars above a five pointed star, next to, what Harry now realised was, Hogwarts' insignia. Curious, Harry looked carefully at Hagrid's lapel and, sure enough though mostly hidden by beard, there was the ship-and-stars next to a lone five pointed star.

Glancing around briefly, he couldn't see any other ship-and-stars, though he did see a many-pointed star that could almost have been a snowflake with some letters superimposed over it. He was too far away to read them and he didn't want to stare so he went back to the mystery of the clothes. Underneath the coat, Professor Snape was wearing some kind of tight... roll-neck... thing... that looked too thin to be a jumper and was made of a strange, slightly shiny material. The neck was fairly high and a bit... weird and Harry could just see the cuffs at his wrists. As far as he could tell, Severus was just wearing normal trousers, though his boots looked decidedly military, with a thick sole.

He looked around again, realising that most people were wearing the tight shirty thing, and some people were wearing trousers of the same stuff. Most had a jacket, coat or jumper on over it. Harry couldn't imagine the thin fabric would be very concealing. He heard his aunt's voice for a moment, talking about 'decency' and shuddered.

_Right. If Aunt Petunia would think it was indecent, and she is all... weird about the whole VC thing and she's probably weird about this too, hence, I should ignore it._

Harry realised that his line of argument was flawed, though;

"Um... Professor? What does 'hence' mean?"

The two adults looked at him is faint confusion since neither of them had used that word recently, possibly not at all in Harry's hearing.

"Why d' ya ask, lad?"

"Well, I just thought that... well, if I _think_ a word I should probably know what it means, right Professor Snape?" he looked at the dark haired man for confirmation, looking the more scholarly of the two, and was surprised to see a strange tension on the man's face. After a moment, the man brought a hand up to his forehead, put his elbow down on the table and leant forwards. His long, pitch black hair fell forwards smoothly and covered his face, and his shoulders began to shake. Harry was concerned that he'd broken him for a second until he heard him laughing.

"Yes, Harry. You probably should." He kept struggling inelegantly to avoid laughing too hard in public and Harry could see him slide his free arm across his stomach, like he had a stitch.

"Alright, sir, I'll look it up, later." Harry reached over and gently patted the man's elbow. This seemed to make it more difficult for him to restrain himself and Harry watched on with a kind of morbid fascination.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Meet Lily's Severus; you will find out why Snape is different, in good time, and more of him in the next chapter, which will be posted on Wednesday.
> 
> A small competition for you readers!
> 
> You've already heard the good Professor Snape's new title, I challenge you all to guess those of the remaining teachers. I warn you, some will be easier than others! Good luck and see you on Wednesday.


	4. The Doctors Office

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for hurt/comfort and panic attacks in this chapter.

 

It took Snape a good ten minutes to calm down, during which time their food arrived. Harry fell on his with enthusiasm, despite not recognising some of the ingredients; he figured he'd find out at some point. About half way through the meal, during which Snape had tied his hair back, Harry realised what was so strange about everyone in the room;

"Ah! It's that Thingy! Whatsit, on the back of your neck!" He exclaimed quietly, with gestures. Harry could see now that he was looking for it, everyone, barring a few children who were younger than he was, was wearing a strange device around the back of their neck. Snape looked a little smug for a second, but it was gone as soon as Harry noticed it.

"You are very observant, Mr. Potter. Well done for not shouting it across the room." The professor turned slightly in his chair and showed the back of his neck to his pupil in the name of Education. "This is an EMN Interface."

The object consisted of an apparently flexible 'spine' that ran from the hollow just below the base of the skull down to where the neck turned into the back and four arms which wrapped smoothly around the back half of the neck. The top pair swept from the nape of the neck to just short of the jaw, mostly hidden by hair, while the bottom pair swept round from just above the tail end of the device, round into the hollow above the collar bone. Everyone, _literally_ everyone over the age of eleven was wearing one, even Tom, the old bar keeper.

Harry flushed slightly from Snape's praise, Hagrid was looking very proud too. "That's on my school list, isn't it?"

Snape turned back towards him, tugging his coat collar back up. Harry could see now, why he wore that strange shirt with the high collar, the EMN fitted snugly over the top of it, like they were part of the same system.

"Aye, tha'll be almos' our las' stop." Hagrid picked up his cutlery again, "Eat up, now 'Arry. Got a long day ahead o' us."

Snape had almost finished his food and looked pointedly at Harry's plate, raising an eyebrow. Harry didn't want to seem ungrateful so he spiked a slightly odd looking piece of meat, or possibly fish, out of his (probably) stew and stuck it in his mouth. Despite his initial enthusiasm for food, he'd about had his fill. Considering he had already had about twice what he usually had, he felt he was doing pretty well. He tried to keep eating though; he didn't want to get in trouble for wasting anything.

"EMN: Electro-Magnetic Neural Interface." This was definitely the Professor talking, rather than the man who had laughed so hard earlier, it wasn't unpleasant though, so Harry settled down to listen, occasionally posting food in his mouth.

"The mutation that allows VC users to use our technology is based in the central nervous system, around a particular chemical that our bodies make subtly differently than do standard humans. Do you follow so far?" Snape had pushed his plate away and Harry noticed that he hadn't finished his food. Maybe it would be ok if he stopped eating? He _was_ full.

"Yes sir, it's one of those... gene things, isn't it? And I inherited it from my parents?" Harry was glad, possibly for the first time in his life, that Aunt Marge was so obsessed with dogs. The fact that she was also obsessed with the story that the Dursley's had fed her about his parents and was convinced that Harry would have inherited their 'bad blood' was an overriding negative, though.

"Correct. So, when the human brain sends instructions about how you want your body to move they move down your spine; through your neck, down your back then out into your body. Significantly, these instructions are in the form of electricity. Now, this is the hard part,"

Harry was fine so far so he just nodded and leaned in a little, his dinner forgotten.

"The protein, the chemical that we make differently, causes the change in signal to be very noticeable from outside the body. Consider a house; the husband is in the garage when the wife arrives home, she shouts to tell her husband that she has returned. Now, some of that sound escapes through an open window and maybe a very quiet neighbour can hear her, so now _he_ knows that she is home too, as well as her husband. Perhaps their neighbour then looks over the garden fence to say hello, sending a message back.

"The EMN is the neighbour. It 'over hears' the messages you send your body, because of the different version of the protein, the open window, acting as an amplifier."

Harry felt a little bug-eyed now, he understood but it took serious effort. The analogy helped but all the same...

Snape was looking at him a little searchingly so he tried to show that he understood;

"So... the machines can hear what you want them to do, through what you tell your body to do? But only if you have the gene and an EMN Interface." Severus could see another thought forming so he gave Harry a minute, glancing at Hagrid, who was looking proud as a mother hen.

"But..." _Here it comes,_ thought Severus, "What about when I made the barriers go all funny? I didn't have an EMN."

"Ah, an apt question; return to the house analogy. If the wife shouts really loudly, perhaps using a megaphone, then it's not just the neighbour who's going to hear; perhaps it's the whole street." He leaned forwards on the table, reaching out and putting a hand on Harry's shoulder, "When you're very frightened, or angry, or want something very much, the amount of chemical your body makes increases, any signal sent then is very loud indeed." Seeing light dawn on Harry's face made Snape feel very satisfied indeed; becoming a teacher had not been his choice, but it certainly had its moments.

"So that's why it was so... weird, it was completely uncontrolled!" Harry exclaimed.

"Quite." Severus' smug little expression persisted as he pulled the tie out of his hair. "Are you finished eating? There is a little chore I must ask of you before I release you to your shopping." The look on Harry's face, full of curiosity, as he nodded reminded Severus so intensely of his friend Lily that his chest tightened for a moment.

"Hagrid, we'll be just upstairs, this won't take very long. Come, Harry." With that, Snape stood and swept away from the table with a quiet, military precision that Harry couldn't hope to mimic. Especially not in slightly ragged, very much too big, hand-me-downs. A brief word with Tom the barkeeper, during which a slightly cumbersome silver case was retrieved and handed over the bar to Snape, gave Harry time to catch up and follow him up the stairs. He was fairly curious about both the errand and the silver case, which looked rather like a toolbox. He was not, however going to push his luck by being overly curious. He'd already crossed that line once already, with the "Whatsit, on the back of your neck!" outburst. Instead, he decided to continue the line of questioning they had begun earlier.

"The shirt is a part of it, isn't it? The EMN." He said, half jogging to keep up with his new Professor as he strode down a hall on the first floor.

"It helps, yes. Though it is not essential; Hagrid does not wear one. Most gunners and fighter pilots do, it improves the exchange rate. Which means faster commands and more information, to you." Harry felt like Snape had forgotten that he was a kid for a moment there, it was a nice feeling, even though he'd made sure he understood afterwards.

They reached a door near the end of the hall, where Snape held a radio key to the sensor by the frame. It clicked open a moment later and they went inside. Harry's stomach fell a little when he realised that it looked like a doctor's office.

"Oh... you're gonna be my doctor from now on, aren't you?" Harry was a little afraid of doctors, Dudley had always cried and cried after coming back from one and sometimes the whole house wasn't allowed to eat for _ages_ after. He backed up a little, conflicted; on the one hand was Professor Snape of the trying-not-to-laugh and the explaining-complicated-things-so-I-can-understand and on the other was Senior Medical Officer Snape.

 _He_ was much more frightening.

"Harry? What's wrong?" Snape took a step closer to him and he made an involuntary step back, jerking his hands up a little, as if to defend himself. Snape immediately backed off again.

 _Well, that's unfortunate._ Severus thought privately,

"You don't need to be afraid; I won't hurt you, I won't do anything at all if you don't want me to." He kept backing away, "I'll just stay over here, for now. Ok?" Severus was glad when Harry nodded, but he kept backing away until he reached the wall,

"Should I call Hagrid to come and get you?" He let himself slide down the wall until he was crouched on the floor, leaning against the wall, trying to look as least threatening as possible. He was a little comforted that Harry shook his head;

"N-no. I... um, you see..." Severus could see him struggling with saying it, and felt the urge to prod him into getting his words out. Fortunately, he managed to resist.

"I've never been to the doctor but my cousin Dudley always comes back crying and screaming and it's horrible and then Aunt doesn't let me eat and Dudley screams even more because he's a little hungry, even though he always gets more food than me and then I get locked in the cupboard and..." Severus watched the horror unfold as Harry spoke, not noticing that the child wasn't breathing until he had run out of air and gone silent, struggling to take a breath.

He would later admit that he swore quiet soundly as Harry's frail little body began to crumple. He shot across the room to stop him from hitting the floor as he fainted dead away. Hoisting the limp body up against his chest, he sat down, on a chair this time. After a moment of struggle he had Harry resting with his back against his chest and his head tipped back against Severus' shoulder to open up his airways. His little chest was drawing in air in deep, oxygen filled heaves as he got over the panic attack, though his pallor said that he was probably a few minutes away from waking up yet.

Severus could feel Harry's heartbeat clearly against his palm, which was on the boy's chest to hold him up. When he shifted his hold a little he could feel the smooth bumps and dips of Harry's ribcage and all of him was bony; elbows, knees, shoulders... if, at that moment, he had known where the Dursleys were, he would not have been able to restrain himself. He had managed to calm himself down by the time Harry started stirring again, at least to the point where he could conceal it, and took great care to do so.

"Just keep breathing, Harry, nice and slow." He murmured when he felt him tense up a little. "Pay attention; I'm not doing anything, just breathe, Harry." He could feel Harry trying to comply, and it was working too.

"Thank you, Harry. I know you _are_ afraid." He sat up a little, prompting Harry to lift his head now that he was conscious. "I also know that you have no reason to be afraid of me, the worst I can do is give you a vaccination that I have already had myself."

Harry was sitting up under his own power now, looking dazed and frightened. Severus thought that he probably wouldn't understand much of what he said right now so he stopped speaking and lifted Harry up to sit on the examination table. Another careful look at the colour of his skin and eyes and a surreptitious check of the temperature of his hands confirmed that Harry was most likely on the severe end of anaemic. Severus sighed, fixing anaemia the normal way could take up to three months, and Hogwarts would be undergoing manoeuvres in under a month and a half. The extra G-forces would be very tough on him.

Severus snapped his fingers insistently in front of Harry's face to test his orient-reflex; reassuringly, Harry's eyes snapped to the source of the slightly alarming sound both times.

"Harry?" the boy looked up at Severus, still a little dazed, but given that it was under five minutes since he had fainted, Severus wasn't too concerned.

"Yes, sir?" His voice was quiet and uncertain.

"Harry, what's my name?"

"Professor Officer Severus Snape. From Hogwarts." Severus quirked a one sided smile,

"It'll do. Do you know where we are?"

"Yeah... upstairs from lunch, your... office?" Harry started looking around more alertly and a little colour returned to his face as his blood pressure returned to normal.

"That's right, you're here for a check up, but you had a panic attack. Do you know what that means?" He asked, fishing a little to see if Harry had ever had one before.

"Yeah, a girl at school had one once. I... fainted?" Harry looked mortified at that,

"In a manner of speaking, yes, and I am utterly unsurprised by the fact. You're anaemic, your blood isn't carrying as much oxygen as it should." Severus felt decently sure that, by now, Harry was unlikely to take a tumble off the edge of his examination table so he went to fish out his penlight and an old-fashioned stethoscope. For now, he looped the listening device around his neck and pulled a stool round in front of Harry and sat himself down.

He hoped to avoid another panic attack by being matter-of-fact and avoiding the use of the word 'doctor'. By getting started now, while Harry was still a little sedated by his fainting spell, he hoped to get into the boring bit of the exam and replace Harry's false preconceptions with a real memory of a manageable, if dull, experience.

"Follow the light with your eyes, don't move your head." He covered the end of the torch with his thumb to make a small, glowing target which Harry dutifully followed.

"Thank you, now look straight ahead, there will be a brief flash, do not blink."

And so it went on, through the full battery of eye tests, both with and without Harry's corrective barriers, through a truncated set of neuro-physiological tests of nerve function and muscle strengths, ending up finally with a brief history;

"I have a number of questions for you that you may find difficult to answer or that you don't know the answer to. That is an acceptable excuse, I may give reasons for you to answer if you do not wish to, but I will not force the issue. Understood?"

He could see that his tactics were working; Harry didn't look dazed or frightened at all anymore, to his great relief. As he was probably going to be Harry's Chief Medical Officer for at least the next seven years, it was no small matter, even if Poppy took over the day-to-day affairs so he could teach.

"Yes sir." Harry nodded, having picked up on the same business-like strategy as Severus for getting through this. And so it began;

"Have you ever been admitted to a medical facility, for any reason?"

"Have you ever sustained an injury for which you should have been hospitalized, but where not?"

He skipped over the family history questions altogether, he admitted sadly to himself that he knew more about Harry's parents than the boy ever had.

The exam ended up taking around twenty minutes, between entering the office and leaving it again, during which time Harry trusted Severus enough to listen to his heart and chest and palpate his abdomen. It was a far cry from when Harry had first labelled him a 'doctor'.

Harry's comment as they were leaving said it all, really;

"My relatives were idiots, weren't they?"

"Most certainly, Harry. Complete buffoons."

He had even gotten a giggle out of him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Just as they were about to leave the stairwell to return to Hagrid, Harry felt Professor Snape pause,

"Harry, there's something important about Medical Officers that you should know; anything you say to us is in strictest confidence. Only if your health is in danger, will the Academy's nurse or I allow anyone else to see your medical records and we will never recount anything you say unless you give us express verbal or written permission." He could feel Snape's eyes on his head so he turned and met his gaze slightly hesitantly.

"Okay." Harry blinked, he hadn't thought about that, he had just trusted Snape to use the information he was giving wisely, even though he had answered 'I don't remember' to a large number of them. "That's... good. Thank you."

Snape nodded, "I bring this up because it is both important and relevant. As your Medical Officer, I am going to prescribe you a high-oxygen re-breather, which will replace the standard re-breather on your list. I will also be tutoring you in its use, once you have undergone basic zero-gravity training."

"Because of my anaemia?" Harry asked as they started across the room, towards Hagrid's overly large frame.

"Correct. My point is that I will not tell anyone you have anaemia, casually. If you feel someone should know, you must tell them yourself or ask me to inform them." Snape had his hand on Harry's shoulder as they wove through the crowd of just-after-lunch shoppers; it was nice to know that he couldn't get lost. He gave the Professor's statement serious thought, he knew that he was hinting at something, but it took him a moment to work out what it was,

"Oh! Could you 'inform' the Headmaster for me? He probably needs to know, right? If I'm going to faint sometimes?" Harry felt a little bit of elation as Snape's little smug smile appeared.

"That would be appropriate, yes." Harry nodded and fell quiet until they reached the table.

"Hullo, Hagrid." He murmured, thinking about how to tell him about needing iron supplements and things, which Professor Snape had added on to the bottom of his list.

"Alrigh' there 'Arry?" Hagrid folded up his copy of 'The Aquaculturist Monthly' and made it vanish into his bulky coat.

Harry nodded; "I'm anaemic and I need to eat some more of certain things to build up my strength," He looked up at Snape for confirmation, he received a small nod, "But other than that, I'm fine." He made no mention of his panic attack; he simply did not want to think about it.

"Glad tah 'ear it, you do wha' t' Doc tells yeh and ye'll be fine." Hagrid was beaming at Snape as he stood up to join them, "Ne'er done me wrong, 'as Officer Snape!"

"Quite..." Snape looked slightly odd at that, thought Harry, but he couldn't work out how so he let it drop.

"Where are you headed first? I need to return to the bulk supplier for an hour, possibly a little longer." Snape asked as they headed back out onto the Alley,

"Well now... 's Gringgots firs' then Ma'am Malkins. Dunno abou' after tha'. Flourish an' Blott, then Aaron's maybe." Hagrid held the door open for the others as they headed into the mad rush of the Alley.

"In any case, I will be accompanying you to the Chemists' and to buy your EMN Interface," He said to Harry, with a significant look, before looking back to Hagrid "'Bing' me when you are done at the data-store."

"Aye. We'll be seein' yeh then." Hagrid and Snape gave each other nods and Snape squeezed Harry's shoulder briefly.

"See you later, Professor." And he was gone into the crowd.

"Righ' then. This way, 'Arry."


	5. The Alley

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome back. Had my first flame on the chapter before this, when it was originally published. Let it be known that I don't appreciate them. If you want to tell me something you would like to see improved, I'd love to hear from you, but if someone's going to just insult something because they don't understand it then I am very disappointed in that person. On that note! If there's anything, terms, physics, science and so on that you don't understand, feel free to ask! I've got it all sorted out in my plan, but obviously some bits of it don't have a place in the narrative. I do enough exposition as it stands.

 

Harry hadn't thought it possible that anything in this place could be dull but soon discovered that banks where banks, Swiss or otherwise, and hence, exceedingly dull. The only _interesting_ thing that happened was more unfortunate than truly interesting; Harry was recognised. A young woman with brightly dyed hair had exclaimed, upon seeing him and caused quite a stir:

"By the Stars, it's Harry Potter!"

She set off the entire room full of queues and people leaned and jostled to get a good look at him, the people next to him and Hagrid leaned over the ropes and asked for handshakes and crowded over him in a way he found distinctly disturbing.

"By Jove, it really is... it's the Boy-Who-Lived!" Said one man from Harry's right as he snatched up Harry's hand and pumped it vigorously, "Jolly good show, my boy!"

"Oh look, Marie! Isn't he simply adorable?" Squealed a teenager to her neighbour, setting her off too.

"Well, toss me out an airlock without a 'suit... he's so damned _small_ ," said a middle aged man from his left who peered through refractive frames like Harry's and loomed rather too close for comfort.

"'Ere, now! Back away, you lot. There's no call fer tha'!" Hagrid boomed as he drew himself up to his full and formidable height. The crowd did recede slightly, leaving Harry room to breathe without everyone and their pet trying to touch him. The remainder of the visit passed with excruciating slowness as the whispers hurtled around the room like gossipy snakes. The shrewd, scowling little man at the counter was overly brisk but efficiency made up for his attitude.

He was pleased to learn that he had more credits for 'school stuff an' pocket money' than he had any hope of spending in a _lifetime_ , let alone seven years, but that was only a minor mitigation of the fact that standing in line in a high security building with no windows was _dull_ and that being stared at was _horrible_.

It took ten minutes, _after_ having waited for what felt like ages, to activate the account and transfer access onto a credit card. Hagrid also insisted on getting come credit chips, saying that small vendors mostly used cash.

He didn't specify what 'small vendors' they might be visiting, so Harry wiled away a bit of time imagining increasingly outlandish things that they could be selling.

He had just finished working up an idea for a 'human-gecko' suit 'for all your zero-g needs!' when they finished up and headed outside.

"Hey, Hagrid? How do people get around when they can't walk?" Harry enquired as they made their way to Madam Malkins.

"Yeh mean in space? No gravity?" Harry was too busy watching the crowd to look where he was going so Hagrid pulled him back out of the way of the two hover-board racers they had seen earlier, who were being chased down by a pair of men in uniform.

"Thanks. Yeah, I mean sure you could just float around but what if you got stuck in the middle of a room and couldn't reach the floor or ceiling?" Harry was leaning forwards to look after the two boys that had nearly knocked him over, looking very impressed at their hover-boards. They looked to be around thirteen or fourteen and had bright ginger hair. Once the kerfuffle had passed, the pair continued, going past a street vendor who was selling bowls of brightly coloured fish eggs.

"The decks are an alloy, containin' cobalt an' iron, tha's magnetic. We stick ta it, like them gecko-mice yeh saw earlier, wit' booths an' gloves." Hagrid gave up on keeping Harry focused on where they were going and just led him by the shoulder.

"Like _geckos?_ That's so cool." Harry was buzzing now, excited by everything going on in the Alley,

"Well, I say tha'... but can ye imagine P'fesser Snape crawlin' along like a little lizard?" Hagrid and Harry shared a grin at that one; Snape had far too much poise.

"Nah, he makes floatin' look _good_."

Madam Malkins was a fairly small shop, with a refined and expensive sign that advertised high-quality and reliability. It was empty of customers when they arrived so the proprietor came straight over.

"Good afternoon Hagrid! It's a bit early for you to be bringing earth-born to my shop! What can I do for you?" She 'bustled' Harry decided. She was wearing a full dress over her weird... tight shirt... thingy, and the swishing noise as she crossed the carpet was definitely 'bustling'. He was a little intimidated by her; she was bearing down on them like an ocean liner...

"Aye, well, things al'ays crop up. Harry here needs his kit and we may as well get i' now. Full set, plus all t' every-day things." Hagrid patter Harry on the back, a little too hard as it happened, to nudge him forwards. He took a couple of steps and faltered again, since the seamstress was looking at him strangely.

"Harry... Harry _Potter_?" Her eyes flicked from Harry's face to his hairline, as if she was looking for his scar, then to Hagrid.

"Aye, tha' one. 'Arry, Ma'am Malkin here outfitted yer parents when they wher' bairns, same as you." The strange look he was getting made sense now, if she recognised him personally; she was solemn and serious, nothing like the people at Gringotts. Harry cringed a bit, he was short, skinny and fairly pathetic; he didn't want every one looking at him like that, and it had been horrible. It felt good to know that people who had known his parents were still around, that maybe, just maybe, there would be more people like Hagrid and Professor Snape, who wouldn't stare at the star burnt into his forehead as if that was the most important thing in the world.

"Yes... yes I did. Well. Mr Harry Potter, in my very own shop! It's very nice to meet you, Mr Potter!" She patted him on the shoulder, smiling warmly. Perhaps she wasn't as intimidating as he'd thought. "Now, if you'll just step up here..." She gestured to a stand and began to take measurements like height and waist. At one point she even measured the circumference of his neck. That made sense, he supposed, but why would she need to know the length of his foot?

"Now, you'll be wanting a military-grade conduction shirt... colour preference?"

She seemed to have finished measuring and stepped away, gesturing for him to follow, Harry was just glad she'd let him keep his shirt. Snape hadn't.

"Um... not really?" He said, hopping off the stand and following her to the back of the shop. Hagrid had settled himself in a chair near the front, taking out his journal again and settling in for the long haul.

"Well then. You have your fathers face shape and skin, which favoured dark reds... he liked burgundy." Harry snapped up that little tit-bit and stored it carefully in the back of his head.

"But your mother always looked best in green... and you really do have her eyes..." She was getting a little teary; Harry could hear it in her voice, so he stepped up to her elbow and gripped her sleeve. She looked down at him after a moment and he gave her his best smile;

"Thank you for telling me about them." His voice sounded very young to his own ears, since he was tearing up a little bit too.

"Of course, Harry. It's the least I can do." She returned his smile and turned on the clothes rack with a vengeance. "Right then! To work. Dark greens and a royal blue, I think... here,"

She pulled out two slippery-fabric shirts, one in a forest green and the other in navy blue. She held then up against each other, then against Harry's chest, and then began swapping out with slightly different shades. Most of the shirts were far too big for Harry, but he figured she was just looking for colours for now. Fairly quickly, they settled on a very dark and rich blue and the forest green. Harry didn't know why they needed two colours, since the shirts here were all one, but he liked being able to choose what he was going to wear. Once they had settled on colours, Madam Malkin looked contemplatively at the pile of 'hmmm... maybe's and pulled out a black and the burgundy.

She looked satisfied and Harry was beginning to get tired of fabric so he checked the time to see if it was time to meet Severus at the Chemists, it was not, and this seemed to spur the seamstress on;

"Oh, oh yes, of course, we must be getting on!" She chivvied him back towards the front of the shop, where her assistant was dealing with a mousey looking boy and an austere looking older woman.

"Now then, Mr Potter! Your things will be ready in about an hour; but I will not have you walking out of my shop wearing in these... things." She took him to a rack of more normal clothes, though he noticed that there weren't many t-shirts. Since most people wore 'conduction' shirts, he guessed that made sense.

"You choose trousers and a jumper now, it'll give me an idea what you like." Harry looked up at her pleadingly but she had turned slightly and was noting something on her data pad. He had never picked out his own clothes before but he at least knew the colour he wanted, even if Madam Malkin said that it didn't suit him very well. He found a burgundy pullover that he thought would fit, and that he liked, but didn't really know how to pick out trousers. When he showed Madam Malkin the jumper, she picked some out for him, looking a little tearful again.

Once he had changed she took him back to the front of the shop.

"You come back for the rest before you head home. Now I must get started!" She was all excited in that calm, I'm-not-at-all-excited, kind of way that adults have.

"Full academic dress uniform, everyday wardrobe... yes, yes. Off back to Hagrid now." She led him over to Hagrid and stood with them for a moment,

"Oh, but what is your pet? I usually change the uniform slightly to accommodate the student's animal."

Hagrid's beetle-black eyes lit up, "Now tha's a secret, fer now." He winked at Harry, "Lemme whisper it teh ye."

It took him a moment to work it out; Hagrid hadn't mentioned Harry's birthday since the night before and he had quite forgotten. Once he remembered, he felt rather overwhelmed and watched their exchange with a vacant, rapidly blinking stare.

Madam Malkin looked most approving, and smiled at Hagrid once he had finished speaking.

"Well then, you'd best be getting on to the Flourish and Blot; best get your texts. Off with you!" She shooed them out of her shop, turning back to make sure that her other customers were being served properly.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Once again thrown into the melee, Harry kept his eyes wide; trying to take in everything at once and occasionally fiddling with the cuffs of his new jumper. He wasn't used to ones that didn't either fall over his hands or fray considerably. He just let himself be guided by Hagrid's hand on his shoulder and visually investigated everything.

A vendor to his left was calling out loudly and so quickly that Harry caught maybe three in ten words. The wares on his stand were obviously meant to go off-planet though; they proclaimed such things as;

'Immunity Mug! Drink your morning Coffee, regardless of g!' and

'Increase the quality of your Air-Space, Use Oderifiers!'

The add-hock usage of capitals and fluorescent fonts was vaguely off-putting. The next stand down, set in the alley between two bigger shops, (one of which was also a clothes shop, though it looked less prestigious than Madam Malkins) was another fish related one, only this time the wares were both fully grown and very much alive. They were happily swimming in loops within their cylindrical tanks, scales throwing off the sunlight in flashy sparkles. The owner looked much more laid back than the other one, and greeted Hagrid as they passed. Harry resisted doing a double-take, because it wasn't possible that the man was gray skinned, and if it _was_ then it would be even more rude to stare. His signs were written in dark blue on tropical-water-coloured vid screens, which shifted like light through water; it was mesmerizing to watch and Harry had no problem keeping his eyes on that instead of the oddities of the man behind the counter. As they left the stand behind a tank that Harry had thought was empty suddenly contained a large and many-tentacled creature. He squeaked and jumped sideways, bumping into Hagrid, who patted his shoulder and grinned. As they kept walking he swivelled his head to stare at the bizarre creature, watching as it 'disappeared' again, looking like an extension of the rock in its tank. Harry could just make out its eyes amongst the tentacles that it bent up to look like bits of weed.

"Now that's just showing off..." He muttered. It finally went out of view as they entered the next shop, the data-store, Flourish and Blot's. The shops symbol was a very old writing implement, made out of some kind of feather, which had dripped ink on the paper at the end of a long curlicue. It explained the strange name, at least. The merchandise seemed to consist mainly of data pads like the one his uncle had for receiving mail, though most of these were slimmer and of a sleeker design. A quick look at his list showed that he had choice of make and model, though there was a list of capabilities that he'd need too. Along with a list of text files that he'd need to study; He looked at that one with some despair, there were so  _many_...

"Righ' then. I'm no good wi' words and data so you go an' choose summat. Ye've got yer list?" Harry nodded, "I'll jus be out t' front, wi't fish seller."

"Ok, I'll try and be quick." He said looking back at the list and swallowing.

"Take yer time, 'e's an old friend, an' ah'll see yeh in a mo." Hagrid sidled back out the door, leaving Harry to wade through different models of the flat little computers and chose the one he thought was best. They had to have a certain type of wireless connection and multiple vid-screen capability, so that narrowed it down a fair bit... and he definitely wasn't going to have a brightly coloured one, leaving black, white and silver, but there were still hundreds (it seemed) of other things to think about. Like, was holographic capability worth an extra thirty credits? Unable to make a decision based on just the computers, he went to have a look at the files he had to get.

'Planets, Gravity and Stars: Navigation for beginners.' Had holographic models of flight paths so that would be useful... oh, and the Hydroponics text books would use it too.

The 'Standard Book of Barriers: Grade One" looked pretty dry, Harry thought, flipping through the display copy installed on a basic data-pad. He revised that when he got to 'The Compendium of Avionic Codes and Protocols: Self Updating Edition.' _That_ was dry.

Harry emerged, half an hour after Hagrid had escaped, with a black and silver data-pad, fully installed with his required texts and a couple of other things he had picked up, like 'We Are Not Alone: Looking after your pet in Zero-g.'

Hagrid was sat behind the fish-sellers counter at a round table, sipping something dark blue out of a large, glass mug. As Harry walked over, the octopus that had so thoroughly fooled him changed its skin colour again, generating a slightly nonsensical bit of text that Harry realised was its best attempt at copying the 'not for sale' sign and description behind its tank.

"Hagrid, I'm done... Hello, sir." He said politely, as the fish-seller turned from serving a customer.

"Good afternoon, little one. You must be Harry?" The man said in a lowered voice so they would not be over heard and cause a ruckus. Harry nodded; not truly understanding the man's furtive, if playful, tone but grateful for the discretion. "My name is Aaron, it is nice to meet you." Harry shook the proffered hand over the counter, finding it warm and slightly damp, though not sticky.

As he came 'round the counter, climbing a few steps, he realised that Aaron's skin _was_ faintly blue-gray and that the man _had no legs_. Or, more accurately, in place of his legs was a single, highly muscular tail. It wasn't scaly like a fish, rather the skin was smooth and gray and his tail bore a close resemblance to that of a whale or dolphins'. He was not, in fact _standing_ behind the counter, he was _floating,_ in a _tank._

"It's nice to meet you, too..." Harry's mouth said on auto-pilot.

"Please sit down and take a break, I'll bring some shan!tic over and we can chat." His voice turned into a click at the end of the unfamiliar word, and Harry nodded dazedly, not taking his eyes of the strange apparition as he edged around to the back of the stand. The man had a _fin_ in the middle of his back...

"A'right there 'Arry? Try not teh let yer eyes fall out." Hagrid gave him a jovial pat on the back; Harry was propelled forwards several feet. He got himself together after a moment and pulled out a cushion from under the table to sit on. Hagrid looked very odd, sat cross legged at a rather low table but then Aaron _had no knees_ so Harry figured it made sense. The shop-keeper joined them fairly quickly, holding two glasses of the Shin'click'...sintic...? the blue stuff, Hagrid was drinking. Something about the size of a grape was swimming around in the bottom, much to Harry's concern, was he expected to eat the little creature?

Aaron put the two glasses down, one in front of Harry, and pulled himself out of the tank, onto the platform they were sitting on. A little flick of the tail shed most of the water and he slid easily onto a cushion, sticking his tail under the table.

"Thanks," To be polite and to try and avoid staring; Harry took a sip of the juice. It was cool and sweet and somehow tasted blue, though he didn't know how that was possible. He'd probably liken it most closely to red grape juice but it tasted faintly of raspberries too. He bent down to look at the little creature in his glass, watching it swim with three little tendrils that it twisted like screws.

"You're welcome; it's the juice of a freshwater plant that was made from a cross between blueberries, raspberries and some kind of vine." The half-dolphin took a sip of his own, before chasing the swimming thing to the surface with his straw and catching it. "The fruits swim in order to disperse the seeds but we breed a seedless version for eating." He munched the berry with a lopsided smile. Even Hagrid could tell that Harry was overwhelmed again.

"So... it's actually a plant? Not his relative?" Harry pointed to the octopus, which had crept to the front of its tank and, as they watched, flashed red as a harassed looking woman passed by, making her jump. "He does that on purpose doesn't he?"

"The two are unrelated, and yes, I think he does, the little bugger."

"'ere now, no swearin in fron' o' students!" Hagrid exclaimed, waving his mug pointedly at Aaron. "Don' ye go repeatin tha, ye hear?"

"Ok, Hagrid, Promise." Harry shifted around on his cushion. Now that the topic of 'strange drink contents' was exhausted he _really_ wanted to ask why Aaron was ... the way he was. Hagrid and Aaron shared another look,

"Harry, Hagrid says you've never met a Neptunian before, is that right?" He leant back and reached over to fish his wallet out of the shops counter, Harry nodded, assuming rightly that the term referred to having dolphin characteristics.

"Maybe I should explain a little then?"

"Yes please... that is, if you don't mind,"

He turned back to the table, opening his wallet and taking out a tiny data pad. "These are my great-great grandparents. Here," He handed Harry the pad which was showing a short clip of two fairly young people with three children of varying ages floating around them, obviously in zero-g. All three had tails. "There was a mix-up with a gene therapy and a whole group of women ended up having kids like me, when they eventually went on to have children."

Harry couldn't help but feel a little jealous of the children in the clip; after all, they were 'different' and yet they were smiling and happy and their cheeks were pink. On the other hand, they looked so happy that it made Harry feel a little bit better about the world.

"Once people worked out what was happening some who had had the treatment decided not to have children, but a good number just shrugged and went on with their lives." He tapped his great-great grandmothers image, "It's not much of a handicap in zero-g, and most ships have Hydroponics bays that would beg to have a Neptunian working for them." He grinned and took the data-pad back, flipping over to another image,

"That's my brother, Triton. He works with Hagrid and some of your teachers aboard Hogwarts; he'll be growing most of your food for the next seven years!"

Harry sat back, looking thoughtful, "The world's a lot bigger than my relatives ever knew, isn't it?" He said, smiling lopsidedly.

"It's much bigger than _most_ planet-bound think it is. Don't worry, you'll catch up."

They settled into easy conversation after that, Harry asked why Aaron was on the surface for instance, since it would be much easier to live in zero-g with a tail and it spurred on a long conversation about how naive planet-bound people were, even those that came to Vertic Alley, and how he could sell his fish at high prices just because a Neptunian had bred them. They sidled into talking about the octopus, Oscar, at one point, when he got the drop on someone in a particularly spectacular way. As it turned out, it was the pet Aaron had taken with him when _he_ had gone to the Academy; he'd only graduated some five years ago. That led on to talk about the number of Neptunian students that Harry could expect to meet, (not many) and to a guessing game as to what pet Hagrid had gotten Harry. He was insistent that Harry wouldn't find out until the very end of the day, when they would visit the Mysterious Menagerie.

When he did eventually get up the courage to eat his swimming shintic fruit, it was very tasty.

Customers came and went, taking with them bags of very fresh, and occasionally live, fish and produce, and the conversation continued, with Aaron talking over his shoulder. He had some very good stories to tell. At ten to three, Severus arrived, having 'binged' Hagrid when he finished the acquisitions. He made enquiries as to any curiosities that Aaron might add to the aquaculture ecology (there weren't any) and then they moved on to the Chemists', leaving Aaron and Oscar behind them.

The Chemists' was a fairly boring place, Snape was brisk, picking things up and handing them to Harry. Some of it was self explanatory, toothpaste, shampoo, his iron supplements and so on. More interesting was the fermentation unit, listed as a "gel-ferm unit-2" on his letter. The large octagonal tank only just fitted into Harry's arms as he carried it over to the counter; it was light, hard plastic with clear sides, heating elements and all sorts of other thingamies that Harry couldn't identify. It had its own control console on one side, but it wasn't active and told him little. The other gel components were interesting too; powders, liquids, blocks, sticks, the occasional gas and even something that changed from soft to hard when you poked it.

When they came to the section marked "rebreathers" Snape had called an attendant, shown him his medical licence and gotten Harry's adjustable high-oxygen version.

Part of the reason Harry found it boring at all, despite the number of novel objects, was that their next stop was Ollivander's, where he would be getting his EMN Interface. He lost interest in the shop soon enough and just stood idly by the counter as Snape picked up stocks for the Infirmary. He turned the 'breather over and over, wondering what it would be like to be 'interfaced'. Would he be able to feel the barriers like he had at the Museum? However briefly, he _had_ felt them ripple.

Since he had everything on his list _and_ the extra's Snape had suggested Harry turned to the cashier to pay, putting the 'breather carefully on the counter, next to all the other things he'd need. It consisted of a clear plastic mask which went over his nose and mouth, Snape had made sure it fitted before he had to move on to his own chores, connected to a black module, which would clip onto his belt. Snape had explained that the module would pull oxygen out of the air or air out of water, depending on circumstance, and feed it through the conduit to the mask.

After he'd paid he went and stood by the window with Hagrid to wait.

"Yeh nervous, 'Arry?" He asked, not looking at him.

"Yeah, a bit. Excited." Harry replied, also staring out the window, feeling fidgety and uneasy. "I'm no-one special, Aunt Petunia said... well... I probably shouldn't repeat it. What if I can't get it to work?"

Hagrid remembered their tear-filled conversation in the hut the night before; perhaps he hadn't eased Harry's fear as much as he'd thought. He skipped over the matter of relatives for now; the subject was just too raw.

"Norberta likes yeh, yeh know." He said, seeming to go off on a tangent. Harry frowned and glanced up at him, the question on his face,

"Aye, well. Ye get a computer tha' complicated an' they ge' personality, an' they're programmed tah look af'er their pilots." He turned to Harry, putting a beefy hand on his shoulder and leaning down to look him in the eye. "She saw yeh as a pilot, 'Arry. Yeh can make it work."

He nodded uncertainly; slightly comforted, but now he had to worry about disappointing Hagrid _and_ the Norberta.


	6. Ollivander's

Severus paused as he strode towards the exit, seeing that his companions were in deep conversation; by to look on Harry's face he thought it probably wasn't going particularly well.

"Hagrid, Mr Potter, I believe it is time we moved on." The brief increase in anxiety told Severus what Harry's problem was and he thought it was high time they dispelled any such insecurities. "Mr Ollivander is an odd man, but this should not take long. Come."

He shepherded them both out of the door then fell into step beside Harry, Hagrid on the boy's other side. Harry's intense curiosity for the myriad of novel sights had waned to nothing, even more so than it had in the Chemists. He just stared at his feet, arms wrapped around his chest.

The boy would survive, he decided, and would prove himself _to_ himself soon enough.

The door to the plain fronted building opened automatically as they approached and Severus wondered whether Ollivander had installed the whole building with sentience; it seemed like something he would do. Harry faltered on the boundary and it took a firm hand between the shoulder blades to get him in the door. Hagrid remained outside, while Severus followed Harry in.

"Ah'll jus be checkin' wit' the Menagerie, ye come by when ye'r done." Severus nodded but didn't think Harry had really heard; he was looking around the shop with an open mouthed expression that managed to convey both awe and nerves.

Severus rather thought his reaction appropriate; the store was fairly impressive with hundreds of brushed steel boxes lining the walls and large display cases of components glinting in the poor light of barriers. The barriers themselves were the most striking feature; arrayed in concentric circles, they rotated slowly, forming a constantly changing maze some six feet in diameter. He could see Harry tracking the movements visually, and Severus' smug little smile made a reappearance. _Insecurities, indeed._

After a moment, Harry looked around again, searching to corners for something. Severus had felt it a moment before and, more experienced in these things _and_ with the benefit of his Interface, could locate the strange feeling emanating from the proprietor. He had always wondered what it was but he supposed he would never find out; it felt like a ship powering up, a sense of energy and motion, but the old man was so secretive, his profession so arcane that getting any information out of him was nigh on impossible. He assumed that it was one of the things Ollivander used to asses people who came to him for their Interface, like the maze, as his owlish eyes were watching Harry intently.

"Good afternoon, Mr Potter." Harry whipped round, having turned to scrutinize the wall to their left, to face Ollivander, who had emerged from an isle to their right.

"Oh! Um, good afternoon..." He said with a falter.

"We are here for Mr Potter's Interface, if you please." He interjected into the slightly-too-long pause as Mr Ollivander examined Harry through his incredibly refractive glasses.

"Yes, yes of course. Please step this way, Mr Potter..." He said with a floaty, slightly absent tone of voice as he walked to the counter on the other side of the maze.

Harry, without hesitation and only a moment of further observation, walked _straight through the maze_. Oh, Severus was feeling very smug indeed, proud even. It took most students and, indeed, many adults some time to realise that the maze would not allow them to pass around it, let alone to solve the pattern of movement. Harry seemed to just be taking the shortest path between his location and Ollivanders', indicating that he had sussed out the maze to such an extent that he didn't even consider it an obstacle.

Yes, Severus was indubitably proud of Lily's son.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As he passed through the shifting barriers, Harry felt put at ease. As he had at the museum, he could feel them, location, speed, intensity, and it made him feel safe. Point of face, this whole building made him feel welcomed. Despite his initial apprehension, he realised that there was nothing to be afraid of here.

"Um... are you Mr Ollivander?" He asked as he left the barriers behind.

"I am. Are you Harry Potter?" The old man asked with a very serious expression on his face, which broke into a small smile a moment later,

"I am." Harry answered in kind, returning the little smile hesitantly.

"Well then, we're off to the right start." He said, pushing his large spectacles up the bridge of his nose. "You know what I make, Mr Potter?"

He nodded, "EMN Interfaces, sir. I need one to go to the Academy."

"Indeed I do, Indeed you do." He said, trailing of and nodding. "And you know what they are for?"

"Talking to the computers, sir?" Harry replied, glancing back at Snape and hoping not to embarrass himself.

"I wouldn't put it in those words, no..." He looked thoughtful, as if looking for the right ones. "Perhaps... it would be more correct to say 'feeling' to them." He nodded to himself again, seeming satisfied.

"You see, my boy, computers have their own language, one that no single person can understand. It took many hundreds of years to write and groups of many people to edit." At this point, Ollivander took Harry's shoulder, he wasn't actually much taller than the eleven-year-old, and guided him towards one of the racks of silver boxes.

"So you see; we cannot understand computers at that level. But, the same applies the other way around. People are far more complicated than any computer I have ever 'met' and so computers had to be told explicitly what to do, until visceral control was invented. All of a sudden, computers had many, many things to listen to, too many things for us mortals to programme into them. Our muscles, nerves, minds, blood and hearts all give off signals that VC machines can hear, so we programmed them to learn instead. They listen to what our bodies do and obey, once they begin to recognise the patterns."

Harry was grateful that Snape had explained this in a different way over lunch, between that and the way he could feel the barriers, he was beginning to understand.

"In the same way, we can feel the energy machines give off; you could feel those, could you not? You certainly looked like you knew where they were going to go." He gestured to the barriers,

"I... yes. I could tell... somehow." Harry gave a faintly confused smile, "It was like they make a wind that touched my skin, or when you put your hand close to a light bulb."

"Very good. That is more than many manage at your age. In fact... though I am reluctant to say it, the last person who walked through my maze like that... well, I'm sorry to say but he gave you that scar." Mr Ollivander looked weary and sad in that moment and Harry was a good bit shocked, perhaps even frightened.

"But, that's enough of that... You Father, well. He was over eager, charged right in and got knocked flat on his bottom the first time, before dodging through, quick as a whip. Decisive, if a little rash and a touch arrogant." He smiled and patted Harry on the back, turning towards the boxes and taking a couple down.

"You mother was quite the sight. Very sharp, bright eyed and with incredibly good judgment. She stood and watched and then just walked through, pausing at exactly the right moments, then stepping the next." He reached up a little higher than he could reach flat footed and pulled down a final box.

"And you... you just knew, didn't you? Where to put your feet, how fast to walk." Harry hadn't realised that the maze was a test; he'd thought it was just for ... show or something, and he was glad that he hadn't; he dreaded to think what being nervous would have done to his performance. He nodded,

"Yeah... that's good, right?" He said, a little apprehensive.

"Yes, my boy, yes it is. Here, just touch the spine." Mr Ollivander made him jump, suddenly turning around with an open box in hand. The Interface inside was folded up with the arms lying along what Mr Ollivander had called the 'spine' and twisting around it at the ends. It looked almost creepy...

Harry had barely made contact when it was whipped away again,

"No, not that one..." The next was presented, and the next, in the same fashion. The fourth was a little more dramatic; it made a horrible whistling and writhed in the box. Harry cringed and pulled his hand away, even as Ollivander removed the box. Harry was beginning to feel worried that firstly they wouldn't find one that he could use and secondly that he wouldn't have the courage to put the damn thing on his neck.

After the sixth, (small sparks and a sad sounding 'boop') Ollivander backed off and looked thoughtful.

"Perhaps... yes." He looked lost in thought, "One moment, I believe I have just the thing." He turned and walked slowly towards the back of the shop, a hand on his chin, muttering "Yes... now I wonder... not enough capacity perhaps..."

Harry looked over at Snape, who seemed to be idly browsing Harry's data pad. "Um... Professor? Is this normal? It seems a bit..."

The teacher looked up, his blank expression managing to look smug, _again_. Harry wondered what it was that kept making him look that way. "I assure you, you will leave with what you came here for. It is appropriate to take your time with this." He looked back at the data pad, "After all, you will probably keep the same one for the rest of your life."

Harry nodded thoughtfully, not noticing that he had not really had his question answered.

"Indeed, Mr Potter. Never will you trust a machine with your life as much as you will trust this. It will become a part of you, as much as your arms and legs."

Harry realised that, oddly, he was not surprised when Ollivander appeared directly behind him and he felt like he had been expecting him. The old shop keeper had not opened the box he held now and was looking down at it with a small frown. The box was subtly different than those of the ones they had already tried, made of a darker metal. Ollivander set it on the counter without opening it, gesturing Harry forwards.

"Try this one... it is a little different... we shall see." Harry was a little wary, after having been shocked by the previous try, and approached the box with care. His anxiety disappeared when he touched the box and he began to lift the lid. He could _feel_ something that felt very familiar, like the surges of the barriers he had caused; it was most compelling. It almost could have been a part of him, something he had lost long ago, and forgotten.

When he touched the smooth, slightly warm metal, the little machine gave a pleased hum and lights around its edges glowed a soft yellow.

"It's this one, Mr Ollivander..." He said; his voice very soft.

"Yes... It is, isn't it? Curious, how very curious..." He sounded slightly distant and rather amused,

"Do spit it out, man." Snape had come up behind them at some point and was looking a little irritated. Truth be told, he was intensely curious; that Harry's Interface was somehow different or unusual could mean great things.

"I have only rarely made cores as intricate as this and of this sort I made only two, this and one other." He smiled as if to an inside joke, "And that other, why it belongs to the good Headmaster."

Snape let out a quiet sigh, mentally grumbling about over dramatic old men while being simultaneously curious about Dumbledore's Interface, while Ollivander continued; "You should be honoured, my boy!" he exclaimed but even as he turned to look at Harry his face dropped.

Their comments had gone completely unnoticed as Harry stared at his Interface, touching it lightly with three fingers on the spine. It lay in the box on a little stand, with its arms bent in the same position as they would be once he put it on. As he ran his fingers down the pitch black metal they opened slightly, as if ready to be worn. Slipping his fingers around the spine and holding the arms with his other hand, he lifted it from its stand. The underside was soft, pliable and the spine bent passively in his hand. It _already_ felt like a part of him and he did not think he wanted to be apart any longer.

Snape followed Ollivander's gaze to see Harry lifting the Interface to the back of his neck.

"No!-"

"Mr Pott-"

Neither of their warnings got through to the boy in time as he brought the machine into contact with the back of his neck. A deep tone of astonishing complexity rang out and for a moment there was utter stillness. Then Harry gave a little gasp, his head jerking back and his spine arching violently. The Interface's arms slid easily into position, hugging his neck delicately. Severus lunged forwards, catching him around the waist before he managed to hit the ground.

Harry honestly couldn't have said whether or not he was standing at that point, he could feel so _much!_ Mr Ollivander's barriers were the least of it, Professor Snape stood out like a beacon, as did the old shop-owner. The data pad in Snape's pocket was 'talking' to somewhere and he was overhearing its chatter, Mr Ollivander's house was _watching_ them and tasted of curiosity... so much noise, too much, too much! After a moment he heard his name being called and he realised that he had his eyes closed, once he had opened them he cringed, just a little bit.

The look on his Professor's face was deeply worried and a little angry; if he weren't so dazed, Harry might have scrambled away from him. Snape tightened his grip on his shoulders and Harry was surprised to get a face-full of the man's uniform.

"You idiot! What part of 'just touch the spine' was too complicated for you to understand?" Harry could hear the man's heartbeat through his chest, thumping away frantically.

"I'm sorry sir..." He felt himself being shifted slightly so his Professor had one hand free. His body was still tense and straining as he struggled against the influx of knowledge, the world was so _complicated_! He could even feel distantly, the Norberta 'listening' for him.

A wonderfully cool hand slipped under his hair and touched the Interface, causing it to loosen its hold and fall into Snape's grip. The world faded quickly back to normality and Harry realised how tense he had been. As he relaxed he began to pant to make up for the sudden use of oxygen that his tension had caused.

"Idiot, idiot boy." There was a click as Ollivander closed the box over the Interface. "Come on, stand up." He was hoisted to his feet and his head tipped forwards. Deft fingers touched the back of his neck and moved his hair out of the way. Harry felt all of three inches high, being lumped about like a toddler.

"You seem to have gotten away with that stunt, at least. There is no bruising or inflammation..." Harry didn't think that was actually addressed at him, Snape's voice trailed off into mutters, so he just stood there, leaning with his forehead on the breast of Snape's uniform and waiting for the dizziness to pass.

"I wanted... I thought-" Harry couldn't put that feeling into words. It had felt so natural, so like a part of him, that it was just _right_ that he wear it. Now he was confused, it had been like the first time he had had glasses, like all of a sudden he could perceive with clarity what had always been there, and yet it had been just too much.

"Quiet, Harry. Just get your breath back." He nodded against the black fabric, glad to be free from the need to explain. Snape's cool fingers slipped under the corner of his jaw and pressed lightly against his neck, "You're fine, Harry. But... we should probably get you home."

Harry jerked back from the professor at that, looking up at him with wild eyes, shaking his head numbly. Hagrid had promised not to send him back but _Snape_ had said nothing of the sort.

"No, please... Hagrid, HAGRID!" Harry was panicking, he had thought things, done things in this one day of freedom that the Dursleys would punish him for, his texts would be taken from him, and he _could not go back_.

"Harry, calm down!" Snape was following him, reaching out to restrain him, "Mr POTTER." His shout jerked Harry to a stop, breathing in short, ineffective puffs and quivering with tension.

"No... Please! Don't ... make me-!" He knew he was garbled, he didn't have any air, how could anyone expect him to talk when there was no air? The edges of his vision were beginning to gray out and he could feel his muscles weakening... if only he could make it to the door, maybe Hagrid would tell the Professor about their promise, about how the Dursleys had thrown him out.

He didn't make it to the door; as panicked as he was, the maze slowed him down enough that Snape caught him and picked him up bodily. He resisted, flailing and kicking weakly but panic gave him enough strength that when his elbow connected with a collar bone, the professor swore, immediately following it with a 'don't you dare repeat that'. Maybe that was a pre-programmed response? Hagrid had said the exact same thing...

Harry realised that he must have passed out because when he woke up, much as he had before, his back was against Snape's broad chest, his head tipped back on his shoulder and there was an arm supporting his chest, hand splayed over his heart. The only addition was the cool plastic of the mask over his face as it provided gloriously cool, fresh air. He could feel his head clearing much faster than it had before, but that was not necessarily a good thing; his hand convulsively gripped the arm around his chest as his panic reasserted itself.

"Harry? Harry can you hear me? Stop that, you're not going back to the Dursleys, kindly try to breath normally..." Harry managed to relax his death grip on Snape's arm at that, and though his breathing was still proving problematic, the mask was helping.

"That's it, Harry, deep breaths." Harry felt him turn his wrist to look at his watch and the fingers pressed against his neck again. He had no reason to believe that Snape was telling the truth, but also no reason to disbelieve him... a tempting prospect. Snape _had_ looked after him, twice now, without ridiculing him or being disgusted by him.

"Harry, open your eyes please... thank you," It was surprisingly difficult, he was incredibly tired and his limbs felt heavy and weak, as did his eyelids. Snape's little pen light made a reappearance and flashed in Harry's eyes, "That's fine; you just rest there for a while, ok?" Harry nodded weakly and let his eyes close again. Though he did not fall asleep, he couldn't pay attention to anything either, he just drifted. It was not unpleasant.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Severus was very relieved when Harry managed to open his eyes and actually looked at him for a moment, though it could have just been where his eyes were pointing at the time. He had already taken Harry's glasses, with some disgust at their disrepair, to stop them from getting broken, so he was able to test Harry's pupilary reflexes briefly. Between that, his heart and respiration rates and the time course of the attack, Severus felt safe in his earlier diagnosis of anaemia-related syncope, triggered by strong stress, panic; first the irrational fear of doctors and now a fear of being returned to his relatives. With luck, Harry would not be exposed to such high stress again anytime soon, at least not until he was firmly settled as a permanent resident of Hogwarts.

Severus had little doubt that the Headmaster would want to keep him close now that he had a legal right to do so. As _In Loco Parentis_ , the Academy would be able to look after him and Snape believed that the duty would fall on his and Hagrid's willing shoulders.

A movement to his left caught his attention briefly; Mr Ollivander was placing the Interface, safely in its box, in a bag and ringing up the sale. They were not inexpensive items, but Harry's parents had made provisions for this day, in their will; leaving Mr Ollivander a substantial sum that would cover this and a good number of repairs, should Harry be rough on his Interface. It was not something a child should ever have to worry about.

The boy's breathing was nearly back to normal so Severus began to dial down the oxygen saturation towards atmospheric, though he left the air pressure up slightly higher than ambient to give Harry a helping hand for a little longer. He could tell that he was nearly asleep, though his eyes blinked open languidly as Severus rearranged him so he could be picked up. Severus had to admit that he was not massively surprised at this; it had been an incredibly long two days for someone so small.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

He left Ollivander's shop with Harry neatly tucked against his chest, their shopping bags hanging from one wrist,

"Hagrid, we had a...an Incident, would you take him, please?" The Keeper of Codes was striding towards them, looking very concerned indeed. He bundled Harry up, without hesitation and Severus transferred the 'breather's module from his own belt to Harry's stomach, folding the hose neatly against his chest.

"He is un-injured, however it is time we took him ho- to Thrace." Severus could have cursed; he had nearly made the same mistake twice in the space of half an hour. "We will pick up the pet, but I doubt he'll fully wake for some time." Severus was finding it quite difficult to back off from the limp body in Hagrid's arms. The boy was so very white and still; he reminded Severus more of people coming in, injured, from the black than a boy on a shopping trip. He shook himself and managed to back away, watching the deep rise and fall of Harry's chest to reassure himself.

"What 'appened? E' was so lively..." Hagrid looked like he might cry and Severus really did not want Harry to drown;

"He collapsed. Mainly because he put on his Interface unprepared. That combined with anaemia... well, it was time to return and rest. I... may have worded it incorrectly and he assumed that I was referring to the Dursleys, panic and hyperventilation followed, hence..." He gestured as if to indicate the entire situation.

"I am sorry that this has ruined your surprise. It is his birthday, after all..." Seeing Severus look saddened was simply disconcerting so they, by mutual unspoken agreement, turned and headed for the Menagerie.


	7. Hedwig

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FF.net AN:
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> _Thanks to Forgotten Lake, ObsessiveCompulsiveforhp, Lady Bahiya, GinnyLover14, Electric Risk, WithaVengence, Shadow Lighthawk, kaatisu1, moonrabbit04 and cara-tanaka for some truly thought provoking and encouraging reviews on the last chapter!_

Harry half woke when Hagrid picked him up but didn't feel like he could move; he recognised Hagrid's voice against his cheek and felt safe. He drifted off again.

The next time he woke, the cool mask was leaving his face and he drew a deep breath of warmer and more scented air. It smelled like sawdust and animal hair, and he could hear lots of chattering, cooing and whistling. He managed to open his eyes and smile, knowing that this must be the Menagerie.

The light filling the shop was warm and golden, like evening sunshine, and Harry could just make out the edges of a large skylight above him. He shifted his head a little to look over towards the chattering noises, but without his glasses, he couldn't make out any of the animals.

"'ello, 'Arry. 'Appy birt'day, an' all tha'. Meet yer presen'" Hagrid's voice was very deep when your ear was so near his chest. Harry shifted his head with effort to look up at him and smiled. A small and very warm weight was deposited on his chest, covered in a soft blanket of creamy towel; whatever it was made a soft cooing sound and stood up on four warm little feet. It walked up his jumper and he felt two very tiny hands touch his face, one on his chin, the other on his cheek. His field of vision was filled by two large golden eyes, blinking at him curiously.

"Hello," He whispered, his throat still feeling a little sore. The eyes were set in a little pink face surrounded by white fur, with two tufted ears sticking out from the side of its head. It was really very cute, Harry thought, as he gave up on staying awake. As his eyes shut of their own accord, he felt the little warm bundle curl up under his chin and something long and soft wrap around his neck.

He slept.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Harry knew time had passed, he could remember being wrapped up in Snape's overcoat and strapped in to a seat on an unfamiliar ship. He'd seen the man's broad shoulders as he sat in the pilot's chair beside him and wrapped his hands around a pair of joystics. The ship had shuddered and lurched and then Harry had been pressed comfortably back in his seat. He didn't remember anything else, until waking up fully by virtue of having a piece of strawberry dropped in his ear.

Well, in truth, he woke up because his ear felt cold and rather wet. Still in the vestiges of a very pleasant (thank-you-very-much) sleep, he rolled onto his back and batted vaguely at the air above his face. Whatever _it_ was, stuck to his hand with a feeling like very, very fine Velcro; still holding his hand in the air he blinked his eyes open. He thought he couldn't have been asleep for very long, his eyes felt fresh rather than that nasty crusty sensation you'd get after sleeping too long.

The creature clinging to his hand with three out of four paws was familiar, white fur, big golden eyes, tufty ears. Its fourth paw was holding a strawberry, half a strawberry, which it had obviously been eating until very recently. They stared at each other for a moment, unblinking.

Eventually the little monkey-type-thing put the strawberry to its mouth and chewed off a big piece, still staring avidly at Harry. Juice dribbled over its fingers and onto Harry's arm.

"Merlin... It's like watching a train wreck..." the voice from his right shattered the stalemate and Harry looked over to see a dark shape that could only be Snape offering him a pair of glasses, a _new_ pair.

He put them on and smiled widely, the refraction on the new frames adjusted immediately and the world was incredibly, impossibly clear. The room he was lying in was  large, the walls a warm cream colour and there was a dresser and desk against the far wall. It was lit weirdly, Harry couldn't tell where the light was coming from, but his new glasses made the odd, etherial light crystal clear and smooth. Snape was sitting in an office chair that he had probably taken from the desk, feet flat on the floor, elbows on his knees and a chin in one hand.

"The food was originally for you, however you may need to claim it before she decides to feed your other ear."

Harry spotted a tray on the bedside table that held the promised meal, he'd never been brought breakfast before, or dinner or whenever this was. In fact... he couldn't remember someone ever bringing him food. Buying it yes, but... somehow this was a little different.

"'m sorry, sir..." He said; his smile dissipating as he remembered foolishly putting on the Interface, panicking, running from Snape, all mortifying events. It was hardly the way to repay the man for getting him over his fear of doctors and looking out for him. There was an amused grunt.

"Indeed. It is entirely your fault that your relatives had the approximate altruism of seagulls." Harry didn't really know what to say to that, he wanted to grin at the dripping sarcasm but he still felt the need to explain.

"I... that's not what I..." He mumbled, pushing himself up against the pillows.

"I know, Harry, but you made a mistake that, in retrospect, even I cannot fault you for." Snape sat back in the chair, lacing his fingers together over his waist. Harry was most relieved that finally an adult was being reasonable. A rough little tongue licked his hand and he looked back at his new pet, smiling as she cleaned up the last of the strawberry juice. He shook his head to the side, dislodging the piece to fruit in his ear and the little creature pounced on it and ate it with no qualms. Harry couldn't help but find that a little gross...

"What's its name?" Harry asked stroking the fur on its back gently. It was softer and fluffier than anything he had ever felt and a brilliant white.

"She is a lemuro; she does not yet have a name." Snape had apparently had enough of Harry's food-apathy and stood, picking up the tray and putting it over Harry's legs.

"Eat. I'll not have you fainting anymore; it is not conducive to good health."

The tray contained a mostly decimated bowl of fruit, some rice, a bowl of soup that smelled like cooked-just-right fish and a plate of something green, slimy and that smelt vaguely of lemons. He picked up the spork and started on the rice, which, as it turned out, had peas in and tasted very good.

He watched the 'lemuro' watch him. She followed the path of the spork with both eyes and head, bobbing and swivelling her neck.

"She's rather loyal already, lemuro's imprint on the first human face they see and Hagrid was very careful. It's the bird genes." Snape commented with amusement, picking up a mug from the dresser to his left. "Wouldn't leave you alone."

As interesting as she was, Harry had some other pressing questions that he wanted to ask. He fidgeted with his spork for a second before sticking it upright in his rice.

"Where am I?" Was the most obviously pressing, the room looked innocuous enough and he _did_ trust the Professor, but still...

"This is Thrace, Hogwarts' planet-side safe house on Terra." He made a broad gesture, "It's fairly well shielded and we're not far from London and Vertic Alley. It is also underwater." Snape gave him a moment to process that one, as he spun around to look out the window on the other side of the room.

"Almost all of Hogwarts' fighters, transports and maintenance vehicles are capable of sea travel, in addition to atmospheric and space flight." He grinned sardonically, "It is far easier to crash into water than onto land."

Harry stared out the window, (or was it technically a porthole?) and marvelled at the dim light that spilled down through the clear waters. From this angle he couldn't see the surface or the sea bed, just endless blue-green water.

"Food, Mr Potter." Harry was beginning to recognise that tone and turned back to his food, this time taking a bite of the green stuff. It tasted like the sea smelled, with a strange creamy lemon and sesame sauce, and was warm. He chewed slowly to get used to the odd texture and decided that he rather liked it. "We are not very deep, about 70 meters. You could swim to the surface if you don't mind the cold and not being able to get back down."

Harry scooped up some rice and speared some green stuff all at once, deciding it was a good combination. "Why though? Isn't it hard to build underwater?" Harry asked; mouth half full.

"Very attractive, Mr Potter..." He looked sternly and Harry pointedly chewed with his mouth shut, shrinking back a little. "Firstly, it is no more difficult to build a place like this than it is to build an Inter Planetary Transport, which we do all the time. Secondly, Thrace used to be _the_ Thrace, a ship that made the run from Terra to Matius on a regular basis. We just sunk her onto a patch of rather inexpensive sea-bed." He fell silent, lazily pointing to Harry's food, which was beginning to get cool.

Harry decided to try the soup next and found that it was crab and also very nice.

"Thirdly, we grow Carexin here." Harry's mouth formed into an 'O' and suddenly it made sense. Carexin was famous; it was salt-water kelp that had a very high carbon-dioxide affinity and turned seawater, CO2 and mineral solutes into plastics with which to make its cell walls. They had done projects on it in primary school.

"You would be surprised at how much plastic, gel, nylon and rubber we lose to the black." Harry hadn't had any preconceptions to be surprised from, but he nodded anyway, drinking more soup.

"And you and Hagrid stay here during the holidays?" Snape could see where this question was going and hesitated for a bit, he had spoken to the Headmaster about this... but still, the Thrace was isolated and perhaps not the best place for a child to stay...

"Yes it is. You will be staying here with us until the Transport leaves on the 31st of August."

Harry suppressed both a broad grin and tears, lowering his head and piling up another sporkful of food. "Sounds good..." Snape detected Harry's delicacy in that moment and shifted the subject away from painful topics for now.

"Well then, I cannot keep calling her It, you must name your pet." He stood, going over to the desk and fishing out Harry's new data tablet. "I would suggest using your history text..." He looked down at the little computer, navigating with flicks of his finger.

"Thanks..." He mumbled, taking the tablet and laying it next to his leg. He navigated the menus with his left hand and pointedly kept eating with his right. He soon settled to reading a particular story, a soft smile spreading slowly over his face. Snape let himself relax and settled in his chair at the expression.

Eventually, Harry made a decision and turned the tablet off; he reached out with a slice of banana between thumb and forefinger, "Hello, Hedwig... There's a good girl..." She took the banana delicately in one hand, his thumb in the other and licked his fingers clean. She had a very long tongue, with a raspy feeling to it.

"You said she has bird genes... I can figure the tail, but what about her hands and this?" Hedwig's tail was longer than her body with an elaborate fan of feathers down its length. Harry could tell from how it had wrapped around his wrist earlier that it had a bony, prehensile spine, unlike any bird. Her hands were incredibly sticky, so much so that they felt like some kind of gum, but they didn't leave any residue behind, except for that which could be accounted for by strawberry juice. "this" was the strange skin between her arms and body. Harry looked closer once she had finished the banana, (which didn't take long, to be fair) and found the strange flappy skin on her legs too.

"As a Lemuro, she has lemur, gecko and either swan or owl DNA," Snape answered, approaching the bed and sitting on the edge. Putting the data pad down on the duvet, he gently stroked her cheek to get her to relax and put one of his fingers in her palm. She gripped it and began investigating his hand; it was about the same size as her body, which makes things pretty interesting. "Lemur is obviously dominant, nervous system, some digestion, and probably all her senses are from that, and most of her body shape. The gecko is more subtle but, if anything more important. Observe." He pulled his finger away from her but the pads of her fingers stuck to his skin. "She is not proficient enough to climb on vertical surfaces in gravity, but in zero-g it will be more than sufficient. I believe her tongue is also influenced by those genes, she was catching thrown fruit with it earlier."

"Ah, wait, _you_ were the one giving her fruit?" Harry exclaimed, slightly annoyed and rubbing and the stickiness in his ear.

"Well, actually I was throwing fruit at _you_ , to wake you." Snape kept his impassive look and sipped from his mug but Harry just knew he was being laughed at.

"WHAT? Are you a teacher or what? That's so mean!" Harry exclaimed for the sake of appearances, though he found the thought of Snape throwing fruit at anyone rather amusing.

"Would you have rather I used a glass of water? It was successful, in any case. I'll not have you criticising my methods!" His faux outrage lasted a full three seconds before dissolving his small, one-sided grin.

"As for the wing membranes, I would imagine they're from the original lemur. She was probably a flying species."

Harry nodded and stroked her head softly, smiling. "Is Hagrid around? I want to say thanks..." He shifted and tried to lift the half empty tray of his lap as if he was about to get up, he felt it only proper that he go find his friend in person.

"No Harry, stay there." He looked up at Snape and found him looking dark, forbidding.

"But...!" Harry frowned, a stubborn expression forming on his lips. Snape's look of righteous anger was frightening, but at the same time, if he didn't speak to Hagrid then he'd be angry and wouldn't be his friend anymore. He felt the tray being removed and looked down quickly, then back up at the professor,

"You lost consciousness, twice today, whilst in my care!" Snape shifted on the edge of the mattress, reaching out and grasping Harry's shoulders firmly. "That is not _normal_! You are not well, Harry, and as your Chief Medical Officer I am ordering you to stay in that bed!" Harry felt his eyes start to burn and his throat tighten up, "Hagrid is not even here right now and when he returns, you will no doubt be the first to know."

"He's gone?" Harry knew he must have looked frightened because Snape gave his shoulders a quick squeeze before pushing him back into the pillow.

"Yes, there are students who have no family history of VC and need reassurance. That is his job." He turned back to the dinner tray, now back on the bedside table, and upturned the bowl of green stuff over Harry's rice. He stuck the spork into the bowl and held it out to Harry.

 _The Dursley's didn't need reassurance; they needed a kick in the head._ He thought with an unusual viciousness. He was looking down at his hands, curled tightly in the blankets, and didn't notice the bowl straight away. "It's the Dursley's fault, isn't it?" he spat, frowning and making a vague gesture at his duvet covered legs.

Snape said nothing for a moment then sighed. "Yes. However, it is far from too late to correct. Eat your algae."

He looked up and took the bowl, looking again at the green stringy stuff. Its texture was most like egg noodles, it tasted completely inoffensive, pretty good actually, and it was _food,_ real, filling food, but... algae? Really? He gave up and took up the spork again,

"In all honesty, I doubt you will faint again until we are aboard Hogwarts. Once there you will need your mask when we undergo manoeuvres, but I will do my utmost to prevent a full episode." Snape stood up from the mattress and retreated to his chair, retrieving his mug which Harry now saw contained the same blue juice he had been introduced to earlier.

It was hard to believe that this was still the same day as he had left the Dursley's tender care; he had done so much, so much had happened. So much had _changed_.

Hedwig, chattering, climbed up his arm and patted his face with her sticky little hands and he realised that he was crying; she was licking away the salty liquid between concerned glances.

"I... Thank you..." How many tears did he have in him, anyway? He felt slightly outraged and embarrassed, after all, he hadn't cried in years back at the Dursley's, but since he'd met Hagrid...

"Just eat, Harry, you're safe here and there'll be time for... all that, later." Snape sounded slightly tired and when Harry looked up, he thought he saw a little bit of sadness on _his_ face, too.

So Harry finished as much of the food as he could handle, which turned out to be more than he had at lunch, and the Professor began to tell him about Hogwarts. Harry thought it sounded _awesome_ , and he asked as many questions as Snape could answer, which was a fair number. He didn't realise he'd finished his rice and seaweed until Snape swapped it out for the soup and he polished that off too.

He started feeling sleepy just as Snape was outlining the First Cadet Navigation course and he suspected a conspiracy; between his full stomach and Snape's deliberate choice of a dull topic, it was hard to keep his eyes open. He curled up on his side with Hedwig tucked near his chest, grooming herself with great concentration to get rid of the traces of crab soup on her hands and muzzle. Once he had finished with the bowl, she had pounced on it and licked it clean vigorously, getting the residue on her fur.

As he started drifting off, he thought about asking for some pyjamas but he realised that he was already wearing something large and soft that was definitely not what he had been wearing in Vertic Alley. He didn't mention it, since he was embarrassed about having been dressed while asleep, but it was just another thing that made this different, and better.

Snape set up his data pad to project a low-intensity hologram of the time, once he had finished making Harry drowsy, and left it on the bedside table. Light had stopped filtering down through the seawater not long ago and once Snape stepped out of the room, turning the strange lighting down, the hologram provided just enough illumination for Harry to watch Hedwig fall asleep, her head nodding until she tumbled over and woke herself up again. He gathered her to his chest and made a little nest out of his arms and pillow and let himself drift off with her.


	8. Up is Down

When he woke the next morning, the light was already shining down through the seawater a shifting pattern of bright and dim. Harry lay on his side, as he had woken, watching it move. Eventually he sat up, with his feet dangling off the edge of the bed; sitting like that, they didn't touch the carpet. He rubbed his eyes blearily, not feeling altogether with it, and when Hedwig greeted him, by running up his arm and chattering, he actually jumped.

Once over his own reaction he stroked her ruffled tail feathers down and spoke in a reassuring tone of voice;

"Good morning, Hedwig." He said; half thinking that he needed to teach the lemuro her name and half thinking that it was time for breakfast. First; trousers. Snape had dressed him in a shirt that was many times too big for him, it was soft and comfortable but he didn't think he should walk around in just an oversized shirt and his shorts. He dropped down off the bed and looked around for clothes, but didn't get very far; the view out of the window was far too distracting. When he stood nearer the glass, he could see the sea floor, covered in a very thick carpet of brilliant green kelp. The fronds were in constant motion, as if there was wind or, Harry supposed, its underwater equivalent: current. Shoals of fish were all over the place; Harry thought that the forest looked like a perfect place to live, if you were a fish.

It looked like the room he had slept in was some ways up from the bottom of the sunken ship; he had the underwater equivalent of a mountain view. It was mesmerizing to watch the great shafts of sunlight sweep across the seafloor, sparkling off the scales of fish and making the kelp almost glow.

He leaned his forehead against the glass and watched a shoal of brownish black fish as they picked at the equally brownish slime that was growing on Thrace's hull. Listening really carefully, he could hear the little "Tcluk" sound they made being transmitted through the thick glass. It made him wonder how they kept the window clear of the slime, since there was so much for the little fish to eat on the hull. There was so much life... this was even better than the countryside that his relatives had driven through the day before yesterday, he'd had no idea that there was so much in the oceans.

He didn't know how long he stood watching but eventually he was brought back to reality by the sound of the door sliding open. He blushed furiously, knowing he would look ridiculous in just his underwear and a huge shirt. Hedwig, who had left him to look out of the window alone, in favour of exploring the room again, chattered excitedly and gambolled towards the door. Harry turned to see who it was and wasn't surprised to see Snape, though the large trunk he had with him was novel.

"I brought your clothes; Hagrid dropped them off on his way past." He said, stepping warily inside and trying not to catch any of Hedwig's tail feathers under his boots. "There is a bathroom at the end of the hall, with a shower." Eventually the lemuro took a leap of faith and jumped up and caught hold of Snape's calf, riding with her tail wrapped around his ankle. The man just sighed and strode to the bottom of the big bed to put the trunk down.

Harry was again, mortified. Had Snape noticed that he hadn't bathed in almost a week? Did he smell that bad? Regardless, yes, Harry would very much like to shower.

"Um... yes, sir... I would like to wash; I'll be quick, honest!" He managed to get out, biting his lip in embarrassment.

"Very well, I'll return to pick you up in twenty minutes, take your time." The professor checked his watch to note the time, "Finding the Mess is somewhat of a navigational challenge, do not go wandering alone, understood?" With that, he gave Harry a brief nod and swept out of the room. He returned half a moment later, looking amused, and deposited Hedwig in Harry's hands.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Harry spent a long time under the hot water, in the end, shampooing his hair twice and using a fair amount of the body wash he'd gotten at the Chemists. It felt pretty good to have his own stuff, for once, and not have to worry about using too much, well, except that he would need to get more eventually.

The bathroom was cool too, it didn't have a window to the sea, but it was lit in the same weird was as the bedroom was. Harry eventually worked out that the floor was doing the actual glowing, which then bounced off the white ceilings. It made a wonderfully even light that didn't make Harry's eyes sore at _all_. While the bedroom had been bathed in a kind of yellowy warm colour, the bathroom was plain white light that reflected off the blue panels that fronted the cupboards. It felt very... spacey, to Harry, and the utter separation between this place, with its glowing floors, still air and life just outside the window and the sterility, cold and hunger of the Dursleys was... baffling. It was hard to imagine his Uncle or Aunt ever setting foot in a place like this, or even existing in the same world as it.

Once he was clean to his own, admittedly rather high, standards his finger starting to look a little wrinkly. A look at his new watch, which was lying by the sink, told him that he had five minutes left before Snape got back. Hedwig had been playing with his borrowed shirt while he showered, he discovered, and had turned it from a neat pile into a tangled maze. But, she looked so amusing, with just her head and one hand poking out of one of the sleeves, that it was worth the second round of folding. As he dried off on a very large towel, she went to investigate the damp shower tray, her tail held upright out of the water.

After carelessly scrubbing his hair dry, he started pulling on the new clothes Madam Malkin had sold him. It was _so very good_ to have his own stuff. He'd picked up the burgundy jumper again, along with a plain black t-shirt and some trousers. He felt he looked pretty respectable, looking down at himself since the mirror had fogged up.

He picked up the pile of borrowed shirt and called out to Hedwig, she may or may not have recognised her name, but she came anyway, looking curious. Snape arrived a few minutes early, just as he was padding, barefooted, back to the room he had slept in.

The man stopped and blinked for a moment before continuing as if nothing had happened, remarking wryly;

"Ah, yes... the infamous Potter hair. I see it now." He walked past the confused Harry and picked up his data pad, flipping it over swiftly and presenting the shiny black back to Harry, who realised that it made an impromptu mirror. He saw Snape's point, as always when he had washed it, the vast majority of his hair was sticking up vertically. He scowled at the teacher and ran his fingers through the damp tangle to get it to flop down slightly more naturally.

"It's not like I can help it..." He grumbled. Hedwig seemed to take his actions as permission to begin grooming his mane for him. Her sticky little hands acted like very fine combs and did get rid of the tangles, though she didn't seem to have the concept of 'getting it to lie down' quite right. Harry, having not been exposed to very much nature journalism, was rather confused by her behaviour.

Snape explained about mutual grooming, as Harry put his new shoes on. They felt pretty strange to him, since they touched the tips of his toes and held his foot still, instead of letting them slip around. He guessed that was why the seamstress had measured his feet, in any case.

"So she's saying 'let me be your friend'?" He asked as they left the room, turning down the corridor in the opposite direction from the bathroom.

"In a manner of speaking, it would perhaps be closer to 'please be my friend'." Snape said, still looking amused at the mess the little lemuro was making of his hair. "Come, breakfast."

Snape strode away swiftly, his jacket flaring behind him, and Harry jogged to catch up.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Mess, the ship's dining hall, was in the habitat ring. Ship's like the Thrace and Hogwarts, Snape told him, had large rotating ring shaped decks suspended from the 'spine', or central axis of the ship. As the ring spun, it created an 'outward acceleration', and the rings felt like they had gravity. Harry couldn't say he understood the principle, but Snape assured him that they could come back to the topic. In any case, Snape explained that only the bottom third of each ring was usable, before the floors became too sloped compared to Terra's gravity. Harry could... sort of picture it.

A ship's crew would spend most of their time in the habitat ring, so that they could avoid the long-term effects of zero-g, and only venture out into the rest of the ship for their working shifts; lessons, in Harry's case. Apparently, most of a ship was unmanned most of the time, maybe even half the volume. It took that much space to store the power ships needed; not to mention the fighter decks, storage compartments, and water and air filtration.

Since the Thrace had been decommissioned, her port fighter deck had been converted into the living quarters Harry had stayed in, so that there was space for Hogwarts' non-student crew, Snape said, to have a base from which to have shore-leave.

Harry felt uneasy about that, could some unknown crewmember just be wondering around...?

"How many people are staying here?"

They were in the lift at this point, travelling down from the spine in the middle of the ring to the bottom, where the Mess had been rotated to before the Thrace was grounded. Snape could not help but notice the unease behind the question,

"Hogwarts is recharging her power reserves in close orbit around Solaris over the summer, the majority of the crew are required to stay on board." He spoke as the lift reached their stop and he swept out. "Hagrid and I are the only planet-side crew members during the recharge."

Breakfast was much along the same lines; food had been waiting for them under a heat lamp, they spoke a little, Harry asked his questions and Snape answered with a brisk but relaxed tone. Hedwig once again attacked Harry's food, though with more decorum this time. He noticed that she seemed to like soft fruits, like banana, and fishy things best; he had watched open mouthed as she took the piece of kipper he offered in one hand, a slice of banana in the other and alternated bites. She seemed to enjoy it, at least.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Severus watched the Lemuro with gentle amusement, though he couldn't help remembering his own first companion, a Pebble Toad, which had lived a happy seven years before dying of old age. He hadn't ever gotten 'round to replacing him, despite some pressure from both Albus and Minerva. No, he was comfortable in his solitude and the company of his shipmates, when necessary, but... The joy and amusement on Harry's face was something to be envious of.

Perhaps the truth of his relatives' callous rejection had not truly reached him yet, or perhaps he was so jaded already that it was a drop in the ocean. In either case, Severus felt justified in feeling some trepidation, should Harry be as deeply scarred as all that... it didn't bode well.

When Harry spoke up, it surprised him out of his thoughts and he realised that his usually impassive expression had relaxed into one of sorrow. Though insightful for an eleven-year-old, Harry wasn't quite there yet and misconstrued the target of his emotions;

"Do you have a pet, sir, back on Hogwarts?" He asked, with his hand over Hedwig's back as she washed her hands clean of banana and fish. Severus noted that he'd done fairly well at eating a normal portion of food, though his shrunken stomach would probably protest later.

"No, I do not. My first companion died just after I graduated, four years before you were born." Harry's face fell in sympathy. "I have yet to replace him."

"I'm sorry sir..." The boy had stopped eating; it was probably for the best, Severus would make sure he was fed again, mid-morning. He sat back himself, popping the last bit of his smoked fish and egg into his mouth, waving off Harry's concern.

"He was old," he said, in an attempt to alleviate the boy's unwelcome concern, honestly, he had been kicked out by his only living family and he was worried about the death of a toad, fifteen years in the past?

"Still though..." Conversation trailed off after that, as Severus stood up and gathered their plates. Harry quite automatically joined him and did much of the washing up. While a good work ethic was important, Severus felt a little bitter that Harry had had it ingrained in him so soon.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Harry grinned as he looked around the kitchen, --or Mess, as Snape had called it; it wasn't messy, so Harry rightly assumed that this was a shipside term. It was WAY better than the Dursley's, the sink had a moveable head like a shower and he happily squirted the bits of toast and egg yolk of his plate with it, doing his best not to get water everywhere, as entertaining as that might be. Hedwig seemed to like it too; she stuck to the back of his hand and kept putting her hand into the jet, before jerking it back and licking the water off. If she wanted to drink from the fun tap, so be it, though Harry thought that he had better sort her out a bowl or something so she could drink when she liked.

Snape's presence at his side was strange, he'd never done the washing up with someone else before; the professor took the clean, de-bubbled plates and things from him and passed them through a jet of air that blew all the water off the utensils and onto the draining board. It beat tea-towels, any day. As they put everything away, Harry noticed that Snape didn't just put things on shelves; each item went into a rack that held it securely.

"When a ship accelerates, that is, begins to go faster or change direction, anything that isn't secured, tied down or racked, gets thrown across the room." Snape said, in response to his question.

"Like having something in a box and throwing it up in the air?" Harry asked as he worked out how his milk glass would fit into its rack.

"Quite. People included. It is very dangerous to leave anything unsecured, on an active ship." Snape finished drying his hands as he spoke and picked Hedwig up out of the sink, playing with the tap had made her soggy, though her tail seemed to stay dry, no matter how it got splashed. "Here." The teacher handed the damp creature over and Harry watched with great fascination as she stretched out her wing membranes and shook her arms. Her fur shed little droplets all over Harry and he spluttered and giggled. It was so nice to have a little someone; she was so silly and happy and... He thought about Snape's poor, old little toad and wished he could replace him. Snape had looked so sad. Maybe he could talk to Hagrid. He had found him Hedwig after all, and she was _perfect_.

"But I thought that this ship," He paused and looked as Snape with a questioning look,

"Thrace." The professor supplied,

"I thought Thrace was grounded or sea-bedded, and that was why there are places to live outside of the ring thingy." He said, trying to work out how this whole business worked.

"Very astute, Mr Potter." Harry didn't quite know what that meant, but Snape had the same expression as he had when Harry had worked out the Interfaces, at the Leaky Airlock. "It is purely habit, habit that could save someone's life." That made him pay attention.

"Imagine a knife or plate, dropped down the lift shaft. By the bottom, it will be moving at great speed, enough to injure or kill someone. Now imagine that the ship is breaking, slowing down. Have you ever been in a car as it made a sudden stop?"

Harry nodded silently, watching the professor intently, "You get thrown forwards, sir."

"Indeed. On this ship, that is forwards," He said, pointing to the wall to the right of the lift. "If she was breaking, that direction would become 'down', because you would get thrown forwards so hard. So, your knife would become a dangerous, fast moving menace as it 'fell' towards that wall."

Harry _could_ imagine it, and did so with no small amount of horror, imagining falling from where he stood to the wall, some ten meters away. The tables, he now noted, were bolted to the floor, along with the benches, and the cupboard doors all had latches.

"What about us? How do we not get... splatted?" Harry was frightened by this whole affair, just a little, though he would try not to admit it. He thought that the Professor would probably notice anyway.

"The Admiral, leader of Hogwarts and the Headmaster, always give's ten, five and two minute warnings before he allows manoeuvres, that is... anything that could cause us to rattle around like peas." Snape was ushering him back towards the lift, now, and the hand on his shoulder was quite comforting.

"So there's time to hang on to something?" Harry asked as the boarded the lift up to the spine,

"More than simply 'hang on', you must strap yourself in at a 'take hold'. Here..." He touched a panel in the lift that had a blue border on the bottom left corner and a barrier sprang to life, like the one Harry had used to strap in, in the Norberta. "There are panels like this all over the ship, identifiable by that border. On an active ship, you must, _must_ , know the location of the nearest one _at all times_."

Harry nodded vehemently; he had no desire to either disappoint his professor or to end up splatted on a wall that had suddenly become the bottom of a long drop. He felt jittery now, as if the Thrace might suddenly buck under them and throw him to the new 'ground'.

It was strangely mundane when the lift 'ding'ed to tell them it had arrived. They rode up to the spine quietly and once the doors opened again, Snape swept out, in his typical manner. Harry followed, with a healthy respect for the long tube that made up the spine. He noticed that there were 'take hold's every few meters, perhaps as many as a hundred, spanning as far as he could see. He remained thoughtful and quiet as Snape led him back towards the reappointed flight deck and the room he had slept in.

As they arrived, he noticed that the walls here did _not_ have take hold's; after all they had been added after the ship was grounded, so he guessed there was no need. He felt a little reassured by that, after all, it could hardly take off now, with so many modifications.

When the corridor with the bathroom at the end came into view, Harry noticed that some of the door's had small black name plates next to them, to the right of the frame. He read 'R. Hagrid' on one and 'S. Snape' on the one opposite, next to one reading 'H.J. Potter' in bold white text. He stopped, staring at the little plate and had to rearrange his head a bit. It wasn't just some room he had slept in... It had _his name_ on it... nothing had had his name on it _officially_ before. That made the room his! _And_ it was next to the Professors!

It was really, really weird... He'd known that normal kids got their own rooms and some got two bedrooms, but he'd never... He though back to how Snape had described his anaemia, his 'malnutrition'...

They had thrown him out.

He shivered all over, filled with conflicting emotions. He was free of them, finally, and he hadn't had to steal a car or get admitted to hospital or anything, but at the same time... he had no family, not one person. 

"I have a room." He said to thin air,

"You do, and you will, for as long as you want it." A heavy hand fell on his shoulder and he flinched at first. But after a moment he spun around and threw his arms around Snape's middle, pressing his scarred forehead to the man's chest.

"I want it. I'll want it forever," He choked out. Snape's arms came around his back and pressed down on him comfortably.

"Indeed."

They stood that way for a few minutes while Harry got himself back under control and subdued his shivering. Eventually, Hedwig's chittering made its way through the mess of emotions and he stepped back from the professor, wiping his sleeve over his eyes.

"Thank you, sir." He said, looking up into Snape's eyes, managing to hold his gaze for only a couple of seconds. He couldn't make sense of what the man's face showed, it was faint and complicated and nothing like the bi-polar expressions of his Uncle. It wasn't ... uncomfortable either, though.

"Now, go fetch your supplements and I will explain their purpose and usage." Snape stepped to the right and touched a panel at Harry's head height. The door slid open under its own power and Harry popped in. "They're in the medicines box."

The little jars of pills were in the trunk Snape had brought in earlier, in a box marked with a green cross. Harry hadn't seen the box itself before, but he knew the symbol from the pharmacy near Privet drive. There were other things in there too, like plasters, scissors and a little tube of antiseptic. He brought the whole box out, in the end. Hedwig found the trunk fascinating and Harry left it open so she could explore.

Snape had claimed the desk chair again and Harry sat down on the edge of _his_ bed (his!) and took out the two pill bottles;

"One of each, taken together, after food. Once after breakfast and once after the evening meal." Snape said, taking the jars one by one and breaking their seals. A little chime sounded very quietly from Snape's Interface,

"I will be informed if you have forgotten to take them," He said with a faintly warning tone, handing the bottles back. "I will remind you once, and after that, your reminder will involve lines."

Harry nodded, "I'll do my best to remember, sir," he said truthfully; he had no desire to disappoint him.

"As for the rest, it is the basics and I am trusting you to be mature." Snape looked rather serious, "That means using this for very small things, or things you know the reason for. If you ever are truly injured, or unwell for longer than the half hour it takes headache pills to work, I expect to see you in the Infirmary or my office immediately."

Harry was a little taken aback, Aunt Petunia had rarely given him a plaster or medicine, but when she had, it had been because he wouldn't stop bleeding or was very ill indeed. Perhaps this was something, like the room, that he should put down to his _relatives_ being weird. He had a strong, sad feeling that normal children got plasters and medicine and concerned adults.

"I will, sir. I promise." He said, feeling a bit overwhelmed again, he was starting to get used to being blindsided though. The pill's marked "Ferrous Sulphate" were white and shiny and he had to chase them around before he could pick one up. Snape instructed him to swallow that one whole, with water if he needed it. He didn't. The one's marked "Werniker's Complete Organic Supplement" were orange, about the size of a credit chip and squishy. He chewed it up like a sweet, and though it tasted sugary and orangey, it was a little off. He made a bit of a face and put the bottles back in the medicine box.

"Between those two, it should make up for everything your body has missed _this_ year." Snape watched him put everything away and rescue Hedwig from another sleeve. Once Harry was done, he continued. "However, there is little to be done for the time before that... it may be the case that you will never grow as tall as you would have otherwise."

Harry swallowed hard as he sat back down on the edge of his bed; he appreciated Snape's honesty, he really did, and he _had_ known that he probably wouldn't 'grow up big and strong' like Dudley, not after the emphasis Aunt Marge had put on Dudley's red meat consumption. Still, it was fairly unpleasant to hear it out loud.

"I... right. So... there's the possibility that I will, though, right?" He said, not feeling hopeful,

"Yes, a small one, if you take your supplements regularly." Snape said, nodding, though his expression remained serious. "Life aboard Hogwarts is not easy, and will be even more strenuous for you, as you are now." Harry didn't know what to think about that, his life before now had not been easy either, but that he, being small and malnourished, would be singled out again was not something he liked the thought of.

"However, we do have a month between now and the departure of the Hogwart's Express. It may be possible to... compensate a little." Harry felt like leaping on that idea, it sounded like a damn good one; he leant forwards with a serious look on his face, listening intently. "I warn you that it will not be easy, however."

"Really sir? I'll work hard, I promise!" He exclaimed; all eagerness and enthusiasm. Hedwig, sitting on his shoulder, mimicked his tone of voice and leaned towards Snape, chittering.

The professor leaned back in his chair, appearing to consider something, eyes flicking over the pair. "You are sure? You would not rather have a month's idle holiday?"

"Sir, I've never been 'idle' in my life, why should I start now? Besides, effort now makes later easier, right?" Snape cringed at that massacre of the English language but nodded, nonetheless.

"Very well. I warn you that I am a hard taskmaster, you may hate me by the end of the week." He said, standing. Harry copied him, looking amused and a little baffled.

"You haven't met Uncle Vernon, sir." He said, not believing that anyone could be worse than his uncle.

"Indeed... pray that I never do," There was a dark look on his face that scared Harry a bit, then, and he wondered what Snape would do to his relatives... He didn't really know how to react to that.


	9. Fish

The following morning found both Harry and Snape walking towards the front of the grounded ship, dressed in conduction shirts and overcoats. Harry had discovered that Madam Malkin had done a wicked job with his clothes; he'd found four of the shirts carefully packed in a box, interleaved with packing paper. Two were the dark blue he had seen, with forest green panels down from under his arm, over his waist to the hem at his hip. The remaining two were short sleeved, coming down to where mid-bicep would be if Harry had any defining muscles; one with the same pattern in dark red as the long sleeved ones, and one plain, both in an inky black fabric. He'd chosen the plain one for now, feeling that the coloured ones were a little special for just exercising in.

Besides, Snape was wearing plain black.

His overcoat was also damn awesome, he thought. It was made of stiff black fabric in the general design of a military uniform, knee length flair, lapels and epaulets. It had the Hogwarts emblem stitched onto his right shoulder and a small, metal patch on the right breast where his official insignia would go. The professor had his rank on the left lapel and his insignia on the right... Harry felt inordinately proud; it was getting easier to believe that his life had changed completely, for the better. Hedwig was hugging his shoulder, where the epaulet had been modified so she could cling to it comfortably.

Snape, striding out just ahead of him, was somehow making his uniform snap every time they turned a corner, Harry's just flapped pathetically. Still, he felt very official in his uniform.

Snape was taking him to the Hydroponics bay, to teach him to swim.

Ah. He was rather nervous, having never encountered or entered a large body of water before, but his breather was firmly attached to his belt and his professor had promised to be... thorough. Though a little daunting, this was also reassuring.

The Hydroponics bay was a long way from the fighter deck, down long corridors with sloping floors and take-hold's every few feet. Occasionally they would pass a hatch to the outside world and brilliant blue sunshine would come in through the glass and blind him for a moment. Since this place wasn't designed for gravity it was a little... strange; the main floor was metallic, Harry assumed for the magnetic pads in his boots to cling to, though they weren't active then. Their feet made a sharp thunk with each step which echoed back softened in the long space, it was almost musical.

Doors led off the corridor at indeterminate intervals, some with glass windows in, some without. Once, Harry saw the control room for one of the Thrace's gun emplacements, labelled "Dorsal Spine Armoury". At the next hatch to the outside, he leaned close to the glass and looked back the way they had come; the barrel of the gun was just visible, sticking out into the ocean. It was bigger than he had expected, the barrel was easily as big around as his head; more of a cannon that a gun.

"Step lively, Mr Potter!" Snape called from down the corridor and he scrambled to catch up, jogging lightly. He knew they had passed the habitat ring by that point, he had seen it arching up through the water and over their heads, so he guessed that they were at around the midpoint of the ship.

Snape was standing at a large set of double doors that bisected the corridor with his hand on the release panel. Once Harry had reached him he typed in a short code and the big doors slid open with a hiss. Beyond was a small, white room and another set of doors.

"This is the waterlock, it is not so important while we are in gravity, but aboard Hogwarts it is incredibly significant that one door always remain closed." He lectured to an attentive Harry as the doors closed behind them. "Beyond that door is a garden full of water, three thousand cubic meters of fluid, plants and fish."

Harry was stunned, that was _big_. Not just school-swimming-pool-big, that was... bigger than Harry could really imagine.

"At the moment, it is all resting, like you would expect, gravity-wards, in a pool, with a pocket of air above. However, in zero-g the water is free to move around the entire space. As a result it is kept full, with very little air, to prevent agitation." Harry was looking overwhelmed so Snape amended, "Sloshing."

"Right, sir... So this room?" Harry said, gesturing around at the white cube.

"Indeed. One set of doors is always closed. _Always_. So water and livestock cannot escape, and cause havoc in zero-g. It is also where dry-wear is stored. Uniform jacket, boots and trousers, please." Snape ordered, opening a locker in the wall containing a drawer and some shelves. "You have your shorts?" He asked, already shrugging off his own uniform and putting it in a second locker.

"Yes sir..." Harry said, taking out the green swimming shorts he'd found with his clothes from his bag. He felt weird about getting undressed in front of someone else, Aunt Petunia had always... no. He had promised himself he would not go there. He had looked up "Hence" in the end, and was satisfied with his conclusion:

_If Aunt Petunia would think it was indecent, and she is all... weird about the whole VC thing then she's probably weird about this too, hence, I should ignore it. Her._

Besides, the professor was being perfectly polite and had his back turned. Harry shrugged out of his uniform jacket, folding it in the locker. He changed quickly to try and avoid displaying his scrawny little body too much and was soon comfortable in his short sleeved conduction shirt and some perfectly respectable, forest green shorts. If his knees were knobbly, well, Snape would just have to deal with that, Harry didn't own any conduction trousers. Hedwig looked a little confused and a bit put out; the conduction shirt didn't have any hand-holds and though her hands stuck nicely to it, it wasn't quite enough to hold her weight. Eventually, Harry scooped her up by hand and put her on his head, it was inelegant, but it left his hands free to pick up his breather and fix it to his waistband. She seemed pleased with this and Snape was waiting for him by the door, wearing black shorts over full length conduction trouser thingies and his conduction shirt. Harry noticed that his feet were like his hands, long and thin, and decided that it was weird to be seeing his professor's bare toes.

"I'm ready sir," He said, his trepidation returning,

"Very well. Welcome to Hydroponics, Mr Potter."

The doors opened almost silently, as if the sound was being absorbed by an immense space and Harry caught his first glimpse of the water. It stretched the length of a vast chamber, smooth and undulating and a brilliant blue. It was sunlit in that same tinted light that had greeted him that morning, the brightness of it was a little shocking. Looking up at the 'ceiling' he let his mouth fall open; the roof was a great arched dome of clear glass, over which fish were swimming quite happily. The dome was only some six feet above the surface of the water but the space felt cavernous because the glass and seawater above it were so clear.

A firm hand between his shoulder blades pushed him through the door and it closed behind them. Once through the doorway they immediately stepped down into the water, standing on a ledge that ran around the waterlock. Harry watched, mesmerised as the ripples from their feet spread out over the calm surface. Looking into the water, he could see things moving, swimming around and drifting in unseen currents, plants, and fish and... other things. Green things and red things and orange things seemed to be growing in abundance, sitting apparently stationary on the pool floor in ordered patterns, arcs and curls.

The water lapping around their ankles was warm, though cooler than bathwater, and not unpleasant; Harry wiggled his toes and looked down, discovering that a small fish was investigating his foot. It was only a few inches long and had purple skin? Scales? He didn't know...

"Thrace, command authorisation Sierra Whiskey." Snape raised his voice and appeared to be addressing the air, it made Harry jump a little. "Barrier; X-ray naught, Yankee minus one-point-two, Zulu two-point-five, Elevation; Yankee zero."

As Harry watched, the little fish darted away and a glowing blue barrier emerged from the side of the bay, about a meter down from where they stood and extended the width of a broad corridor into the pool. It was level, _well, compared to gravity, anyway,_ Harry thought to himself, still trying to get his head around how this place would look without gravity.

Snape lowered himself down into the water with a hand on the ledge and stood on the barrier he had requested. To Harry's relief, the water only came up to his waist so he knew he'd be able to stand up too.

"Come, Mr Potter." He said, beckoning with one hand. Harry looked around for some way to climb down but there wasn't a ladder or anything... after a moment he sat down on the edge of the ledge, in about ten centimetres of water, and dropped his legs off the edge. It was comfortable, as warm as the water was and he cautiously shuffled towards the edge, letting his legs dangle deeper and deeper.

"Oh for crying out..." He was most of the way there when Snape's patience gave out and the man picked him up bodily and plunked him in the water. Harry scrambled, his mouth tightly closed, and struggled until he realised that his professor was not letting him go and that he could, indeed, touch the barrier. He calmed down after that, though he still held on to Snape's arms just in case. He realised that he was getting a funny look again and blushed,

"Sorry sir..." He slowly, carefully, let go of him, making sure that he had his balance before giving up on his steadying hold, the barrier felt pretty slippery.

"Do not mention it. You do realise that there is a Lemuro on your head? She appears to have made a nest..." One of Snape's narrow eyebrows rose almost to his hairline.

"Yes sir."

"This does not bother you?" He asked, a little incredulously, giving Hedwig a gimlet eye as he drew his hair back into a pony tail. She had curled up on Harry's head, gripping a tuft of hair in each paw and curling her feathery tail over her back.

"No sir." Harry said with a little smile. Hedwig was staring back at Snape with a solemn expression on her little pink face. He sighed,

"Very well, Lemuro's are very capable swimmers, no doubt she will enjoy this..."

So the lesson began, first was holding one's breath under water, because it would not do to be too used to using a breather, just in case it malfunctioned (unlikely, Snape said,) or you had to go without. Harry discovered that the new glasses Snape had given him functioned a little like goggles; the refractive barrier expanded to seal a patch of air in over his eye and he could see with excellent clarity when he ducked his head under the water. Looking over at Snape, he realised that he was either wearing something similar or had that rare ability to keep his eyes open underwater. Harry felt Hedwig let go and float off his head, her tail stirring the water by his ear. She dived down, patting his cheek with one hand and touching his glasses with the other; he gave her a massive grin, getting a little water in his mouth. It tasted weird and slightly fishy but was fresh. He took a moment to look around, the creatures and plants filling the Hydroponics bay were numerous and colourful, huge beds of weed that looked a lot like the stuff that had been in his dinner the night before stretched out to one side and a bank of blue-green vines grew wildly below the barrier they were stood on. Underwater, he felt very light, like there was nothing pulling him down and he wondered if that was what zero-g felt like.

He stood up once his air ran out, breathing out as he reached the surface to get the water out of his nose and mouth, like Snape had told him.

Hedwig was sliding happily through the water; her fur had flattened down and made her sleek. She was obviously holding her wing membranes tight against her sides with her front arms tucked up under her chin and was kicking out using her legs. Her tail was beating the water and steering and Harry noticed that if the feathers ever came out of the water, they were perfectly dry.

Snape talked him through floating on his back, and then had him turn over onto his front and copy Hedwig with his arms and legs, kicking and pushing the water to keep his head up. It was hard work and a little frustrating, he kept getting splashes of water in his mouth or it would get up his nose and make him sneeze and choke. They took a break after about half an hour, since Harry was shaky and breathing hard. As much as Snape had said he would be a hard taskmaster, this was nothing compared to the harshness of the Dursley's; Snape was watching him, always, his hands supported Harry's back as he tried to float, grabbed his shoulders when he sank... Harry really, really, couldn't care less if he was tired, or aching, or that his throat stung from panting; he sat slightly slumped on the ledge, his legs in the water and tipped his head up to see the ocean. If his eyes watered a bit, Snape didn't notice, or perhaps, simply didn't comment.

Hedwig took the chance to take a break too, as they sat on the ledge, dripping. Snape quiet and content to watch the fish swimming about under and beyond the barrier intently, so inevitably, the little lemuro got bored and went back to swimming and chasing fish again. She never caught anything however, because as she reached out to grab something, her wing membranes stretched out and slowed her down. Harry did notice something interesting though, when she dived, she changed how she used her legs; instead of kicking one at a time she beat them together in tandem with an undulating flick of her tail.

Since he had his breath back, Harry thought he'd try it.

"I'm just going to practice underwater for a bit, sir." He said, dropping off the ledge and into the not-so-scary-anymore pool. He took a deep breath and let himself sink down. His lungful kept him mostly at the surface, bobbing a hand span beneath it. He kicked off after a second and tried to copy the Lemuro's waving motion, keeping both his feet together like a dolphin. It propelled him more quickly than what he had been doing before, but he couldn't raise his head above the surface without having to stop. All the same, it felt much more natural and he could steer. Just to prove it, he swam away from the waterlock and did a tight turn to swim back. Admittedly, not taking a breath was probably a problem. He stood up again with a gasp after a few feet, smiling broadly. Snape had followed him and was treading water just off the side of the barrier.

"Yes, yes, well done, Mr. Potter, you can now swim." The man quirked an eyebrow, "This was the easy bit, you realise?"

Harry grinned back at him at the praise, as sarcastic as the tone had been,

"Now you have learnt how to not drown, we will be pushing even harder, for fitness and stamina."

There was splashing and ripples spread out as Snape clambered onto the barrier beside him, his shoulders coming up out of the water. Fiddling with the breather still attached to Harry's waistband, he flipped open the cover of the controls and adjusted the settings. Harry watched carefully, trying to remember what the man did so that he could check the settings himself and holding his arms awkwardly away from his body.

"This controls whether the extractor is optimised for air or water, or the feed from a ship." he explained as he flicked a slider towards a small printed 'W', as opposed to the 'A' it had been set to before and the as-yet-unused 'F'. "Oxygen content, filtration level..." These two he set to '21%' and '0%' respectively.

"Do not change this yourself until you have had the proper training. It is covered in the first week of real term and I will supplement that for the additional high-oxygen functions; we need not waste the time now. Here," The professor handed Harry the mask, which he dutifully put over his nose and mouth. As he was wondering how Snape had secured it last time, the plastic around the edge shifted slightly and he could feel it gripping his skin. It was sort of sticky... and sort of like Hedwig's hands. He gave it a brief tug to make sure it wouldn't come off, and then looked up at Snape again,

"Thank you, sir." His voice was a little muffled and hollow sounding but it was still understandable. Snape appeared to be in the process of fitting his own mask, which was different to Harry's in that it was opaque, in a dark gunmetal gray colour, and hugged his jaw a little more. Harry found it slightly disconcerting that he could not see the man's mouth but it was his eyes that spoke the most about what he was thinking anyway, he realised. At the moment, they looked calm. It was good enough for Harry.

"Now, it will feel unnatural to take a breath underwater, just try to breathe normally." Snape's voice was muffled too, but perfectly understandable.

Swimming completely under water was much better than having to constantly come up for air; Harry dived, leaving Hedwig behind at the surface. He felt much less awkward under water, but it was still pretty hard to get all his limbs moving together. Eventually, he made it down past the barrier to have a look at the vine-thingy that was growing there and was happy to discover that it was covered with the berries Aaron the Neptunian had introduced him to. He touched one lightly and it was dislodged from its vine. It floated loosely for a moment, and then took off, swimming automatically. He caught it so he could have a good look and its tendrils tickled his palm.

This place was officially awesome.

Eventually he let it go, by which point he had floated back to the surface, and pointed it sideways so that Hedwig could chase it if she liked, he figured it would be a little easier to catch than the fish.

Snape allowed him to explore a bit and he gloried in all the varied things that were kept in the bay. He recognised a fish that Aaron had been selling, as well as some he had cooked for the Dursleys, and investigated the algae Snape had fed him last night. He was, in turn, investigated by various inhabitants of the garden as a potential food source; a cleaning shrimp had tried to clean between his toes; a distinctly unusual and startling sensation.

Eventually, Snape reminded him why they were there and they began to swim the length of the room. The varied nature of the things grown and raised there kept it interesting, but Harry had to work hard to keep up with Snape, even though he was sure the man could swim a lot faster. He was soon panting into his mask and swimming with a concentrated single mindedness that could, by a long stretch of the imagination, be called peaceful. It certainly cleared his head.

By the time they reached the far end of the bay, Harry needed a rest, and was informed of this fact by a stern Snape, his voice sounding weird and distorted through the water. He let himself drift to the surface and looked up through the clear ceiling to the sea above. The sun was still shinning, and the surface, all that way up, was bright. After a minute he dived again and found a spot against the wall where he could tuck himself in to stop himself floating away. The floor appeared to be made up of gravel that had been glued together to make a porous seabed for the various seaweeds and molluscs to grow on. He watched from there, sitting with his back against the bay wall, as Snape pulled out a net bag from his shorts pocket and began to collect some freshwater mussels.

Harry was a little envious of the smooth, economical movements of his new friend... Was he allowed to call someone so much older than him a friend? But he really did want to be Severus Snape's friend... He was kind and strong, and the way he had dealt with Harry's health problems had been honest and to the point. There had been no ridicule, no teasing about passing out, just warmth and help.

Harry was more than aware that his current shortness of breath was unnatural, it still had not faded, even after Snape had collected a meals worth of mussels and was taking a small hooked knife to the bed of weed. His limbs felt slightly shaky when he moved them, like when he had offered his palm to a fish as it tasted his skin. Still, if exercising would help him get better, he wouldn't begrudge it, especially since the hydroponics bay was so cool...

Looking around, he could see quite a few of the unidentified vegetables he'd seen in his stew at the Leaky Airlock, growing vigorously under water. One strongly resembled an onion, only its leaves looked nothing like the wilted tops he'd seen occasionally and the bulbs formed in a progressive sequence up the plant's stem, instead of just having one at the bottom. The leaves fanned out in kelp-like ribbons, think, dark green and rubbery. Harry smiled as he looked around at this garden, he could see all sorts of vegetables that he recognised, but didn't, at the same time! Like the carrots, the tubers of which grew sideways, up out of the parent plants' base.

"Why grow all this stuff in water? Why don't you just have a garden?" He asked as Snape came over to gather some of the vegetables with his special knife.

"Do not forget, this place is usually in zero-g, soil and such would be a decided nuisance. The hydroponics bay also allows the growth of animal protein in a way far more convenient than taking a bovine into space." Snape spoke calmly and with authority, Harry thought it sounded very pleasant and he laughed at the image of a cow floating around freely, chewing cud.

"I see what you mean, sir. It's cool, too." He wriggled his toes at the fauna, "I like it here. Is everything edible?" He said, thinking of the little, brightly coloured shrimp that had tried to clean his foot earlier, it had been practically transparent apart from the red stripes down its flanks.

"No, a portion consists of regulatory species..." Harry's politely questioning expression pressed him to elaborate, "They maintain the ecosystem, improving the stocks of useful organisms." He paused in his gathering, his bag was nearly full by then, and searched briefly for something,

"Ah, this, for example." He shook out the fronds of an onion-weed and a fish darted out, flashed a yellow and blue flank at him in irritation and disappeared again. "A wrasse, they remove parasites and keep the other fish healthy." As he said 'other' the gestured up into the water, where the large majority of the fish swam in leisurely shoals. These were the fish that Harry recognised from cooking them, though he was pretty sure most of them were supposed to live in _salt_ water.

"You've made a lot of changes, haven't you? To the fish and plants and stuff... it's like another world." He commented slightly dazedly as he drifted on his back, looking up at the shoal of what looked like mackerel.

"Indeed, you will study them in Hydroponics classes and Aquaculture, that's plants and animals respectively." Snape said as he closed up the string bag and tied it to his waistband. That started another discussion of Harry's upcoming education as they made their way back to the waterlock and Hedwig. They did not strike out this time, going at their leisure, as Snape taught Harry the basics of the ecosystem kept on the Thrace, explaining how it was different from the one on Hogwarts, since the Thrace held very few people.

He went on at some length about the experimental organisms he had established, with a view to refining out medicines; he mentioned salicylic acid at one point. It was interesting and Snape's reserved nature made the hint of enthusiasm all the more entertaining.

Before they surfaced, Snape had Harry help him fill a second bag with the strange blue shan'tic berries, they squirmed alarmingly but Harry had great fun snatching the things out of the water as they began to swim off.

They were greeted by an ecstatic Hedwig when they were done, she had blue streaks on her chin and Harry realised that she must have caught the shan'tic he'd sent her way. He was rewarded with his first view of her flying; she had perched on the 'emergency disengage' lever on the door and leapt off it. Harry prepared to get splashed, watching with amusement and then wonder as she, instead of landing, belly first, in the water, she spread her arms and glided gently onto his head. The soft skin of her wings, furry on one side and velveteen on the other, brushed against his face and her feathery tail briefly obscured his vision. She soon settled and he brought a hand up to stroke her back; she really was incredibly light, he thought, and perfectly dry, though his stroking fingers left a streak of water on her back.

There was a hiss as Snape disengaged his mask, standing up on the barrier below the door, his ponytail dripping and water flowing off his conduction shirt.

"Um, Sir? How do I...?" Harry gestured at his mask, since tugging on it didn't seem to shift it. Harry was feeling a bit fuzzy, and didn't think to look at the module on his waistband. Snape was looking at him like _that_ again, like a doctor, as he waded towards him and Harry shrunk slightly under the inspection.

"The release is a concealed button, here." Snape took the module off his waist and tipped it up so the tubes came out of the bottom end. He pointed to a clear shield covering a thumb sized button on the uppermost end. "It will release upon a single press in air, a double tap under water, and two long taps when in a gel-system fighter." He flipped open the cover and presented the button to Harry, who took the module and pressed the release with his thumb, catching the mask with his free hand. "This is a safety feature, to avoid your unfortunate demise."

Harry looked thoughtfully at the small device, carefully winding the two tubes as they had lain, clipped to the side of the module, when he bought it.

"I can see the logic, sir... it'd be a bit crap if you pressed it by accident under water, but you might want to get it off quickly..." He said, staring off into the middle distance.

"Indeed; a trade-off between convenience and safety. Come now, we are finished here." Snape said, placing his hands on the ledge around the waterlock and hauling his long legs out of the water. Easy for him... the ledge was at chest height for Harry. He dithered for a moment, while Snape was giving the door the release code, before turning his back on the ledge, getting his arms up on it and hauling himself up. With a bit of kicking he got his bum on the ledge but once there he was shocked to find his arms shaking and his head very heavy indeed. He slumped forwards, resting his elbows on his knees.

"Oh..." It didn't feel like fainting, that was a light headedness and a darkening of vision, this just felt like all of his body was very, very heavy. A firm hand gripped his shoulder and prevented his near tumble back into the water proper.

"Stay calm, Harry, you have done a lot of exercise this morning, it would be strange if you did not feel the effects. You have been on restricted activity for far too long..." Snape's deep, calm voice was infinitely soothing and he was able to analyse what he was feeling a little more logically. It did feel a bit like the evening of a very hard day, like when he had to cut the edged of the lawn with the hand-clippers, it had taken forever and the clippers were rusty and stiff and his hand hurt... He shook his head clear and smiled weakly at Snape,

"Sorry sir, I'm fine, just... a minute?" Looking up, he realised that the man had already knelt beside him, when had that happened?

"An hour, perhaps, and some glucose. That is what the shan'tic is for." Without further fuss, Snape gathered Harry up and stood, carrying him and Hedwig into the waterlock. Harry tipped his head to Snape's shoulder so that Hedwig could climb off, since she was shifting about restlessly, and if his head stayed there, well, that was his business. Harry soon found himself wrapped in a large towel and being rubbed down. It invigorated him a little and he managed to get dry and dressed without needing any embarrassing help, though it was accomplished mostly sitting down on the floor. He thought that it would have been useful to have a bench, but corrected himself; what would the point be in zero-g? His hair, once again, ended up in a vertical nest, though Hedwig chose to cling to his uniform jacket instead this time.

Snape had finished long before Harry and he could hear the soft clatter of mussel shells and some dripping as he sorted the produce out. Once the mussels and vegetables were dry and stored in a satchel, he could feel the professor's eyes on him again. Harry was still fussing with the jacket's double breast and failing spectacularly to get it fastened, but at least he was decent. Snape's shadow fell across him and he felt so very small, smiling wryly up at him and giving up on the buttons.

How was it that Snape managed to look so very proper? With his black uniform buttoned smartly and high boots zipped and laced. The magnetic toe of those boots clicked against the floor as Snape crouched next to him and dropped the bag of now-dry and still berries in his lap before picking him up like a child. It was nice to be treated like one, for once. Like the night before, when Snape had stayed until he was nearly asleep...

He felt _safe_ , held against Snape's chest like that, despite the lurch the world made as the man stood up.

"Eat, Mr Potter."


	10. Sleepy

The boy's face was pale, but not worryingly so; though Severus had done his best to conceal the hard exercise and subsequent cool down to avoid stress, it had still been a lot for a small boy. It remained that the twiggy little body was far too light... he would not usually contemplate carrying a first year for any length of time, but he did not see it being a problem in this case.

He used a voice command to open the waterlock's exit, watching that he did not knock the boy's feet on the hatch.

Harry had performed admirably, picking up the basics quickly. Snape was not confident enough to allow the boy to swim in anything deeper than about 1.2 meters without a breather and certainly not alone, but all the same, he had gotten around well enough. His obvious curiosity was gratifying too. That he was still capable of it was a good sign and Snape would simply answer as many questions as he could.

Glancing down, Severus realised that Harry was not eating but rather staring dazedly into the middle distance and looking sleepy. He gave him a little jog with the arm under his shoulders,

"Must I remind you again?" the gaunt little face looked up at him and grinned wryly. _Honestly; must his eyes be so very green?_ The expression looked out of place on a child's face and Severus was reminded of Hagrid's chilling description;

" _An... an' e' looks old, like..."_

"Sorry, sir. I get a bit... dazed when I'm tired." He said, pulling open the string bag and eating one of the berries.

"Do try and remain coherent, you may rest when we get to the Mess." Severus swept down the corridor to the lift smoothly and swiftly and they reached their destination much quicker than they would have, had Harry been walking.

Once in the Mess, he set the boy on the counter, propping him in the right-angle made by the wall and a cupboard. He seemed to have eaten a good number of berries, enough that Severus was confident that he would last the half hour it will take to make lunch. He snorted quietly to himself; even the little Lemuro was tired out. Taking a step back, he watched for a moment to make sure Harry would not fall, then swiftly unbuttoned his jacket and folded it on the counter. With his sleeves safely out of the way, he turned the hotplate on and set some pasta cooking while he prepared the mussels.

The boy perked up after a few minutes and looked at the modified vegetables Severus had left near his hip and he took it as a cue to begin a mild lecture on 'domestic' hydroponics.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

That first day of exercise was hard, but not terrible, Harry decided. He hadn't felt like it at the time, but the exercise had been exactly as much as he could take. After lunch, he'd slept and read and played with Hedwig, but hadn't been good for much else.

The second day was worse.

He woke early, the sun was shafting through the water at a steep angle, dim and pinkish with dawn, but Harry wasn't in a position to appreciate it. His limbs felt so very heavy and ached but when he tried to move, that ache multiplied and his muscles rebelled; he was forced to slump bonelessly on his mattress. His position, lying curled on his side, was quickly becoming uncomfortable but he knew not to move too quickly. He was familiar with the feeling; too often had his relatives pushed him too far and he had felt it the next day, each and every time. Snape had said that Harry would hate him, by the end of the first week, and he could see why but that truly wasn't something he was capable of...

All the same, a thrill of nervousness rippled over him and he moved slowly to get up again, failing just as spectacularly with a whimper that summoned Hedwig from her water bowl like a shot. Her cool hands, chilled by the metal bowl, touched his face in a gesture that was quickly becoming familiar and he reassured her in a soft voice.

When Snape arrived, he had managed little more than rolling onto his back and Harry couldn't decide between being glad to see him and being deeply ashamed of his state. The door swished closed behind the professor, who Harry noted was carrying his silver box of medical... stuff.

"Good morning, Professor, Sorry, um... I..." He stuttered, blushing and batting ineffectively at the covers. Hedwig chattered, irritated, at him and took swift refuge on the pillow above his head.

"Morning indeed, Mr Potter. Lie still," He commanded in a calm voice which Harry obeyed nervously, freezing and trying to convince himself that this was the same as that first night, that he should not be... afraid, or ashamed, or whatever this was that made him want to stop looking quite so pathetic in front of his teacher.

"Yes, sir. I'm pretty sore." Snape simply nodded and held out his silver box. It sat horizontally on the air, as stable as if it was on a table, and he opened it swiftly and lifted things out, including a bulky syringe with no needle on and, oddly enough, no plunger. Harry eyes widened, but he replayed the moment after his last encounter with Medical Officer Snape, when everything had been _just fine_. He was determined not to make a fool of himself.

"Pain relief, topical muscle relaxant, hot pads." Snape said, placing each item, in turn on Harry's bedside table; first the syringe, then a tube of salve, and finally two plastic pouches filled with blue gel with a coil embedded in it. The man sat down next to Harry's waist, making the bed dip slightly and picked up the pain killer.

"This should work immediately, and we will attempt to appease your, no doubt _uncomfortable,_ muscles." Snape offered the syringe to Harry's mouth, which he opened obediently, and the dose deposited itself on his tongue. He grimaced in distaste immediately and the urge to spit the thick, sticky, bitter fluid out was strong. Snape's fingers holding his jaw shut were gentle and insistent, however, and Harry swallowed reluctantly. The goop, for want of a better term, stuck to the sides of his mouth and throat unpleasantly and _slimed_ its way down his throat. Snape's face was distinctly amused as he turned away to put the syringe in the bin and Harry made a face at him before he realised what he was doing; there was no immediate retribution, however, and Harry relaxed again. He was most of the way through rubbing at his mouth with the back of his hand before he realised that the movement no longer hurt; he broke into an immediate grin and begun testing his other limbs as well.

"Wow... thank you, sir..." He said with genuine gratitude, which the professor just snorted at dismissively.

"On your front, Harry, and take your shirt off." Snape ordered, keeping his back turned. Harry blinked at this but obeyed anyway, speaking up when he was done. Snape didn't say anything after that, as he rubbed in the salve and pressed the hot pads over Harry's shoulders, one on either side of his spine where the worst of the ache had been. Harry kept his head buried in the pillow and suppressed his whimper of relief.

That done and the salve given a few minutes to work in under the influence of the heat, Snape had run Harry through some thorough stretches, which Harry found reduced the remaining stiffness to manageable levels. Snape announced him fit and sent him to have a bath, specifically in hot water, and wash the left over salve off.

They made breakfast together, which Harry found as nice as cooking lunch together the day before and were soon back in the Hydroponics bay. Again, once they had finished the first length, to the far end of the bay, they returned more slowly, collecting the occasional ingredient and having a lesson on the things around them. Lunch and rest followed and Harry slept for most of the afternoon.

Snape made him stretch again after dinner and this time he found the burning muscles to be a not-unpleasant sensation and found pulling them out to be immensely satisfying, almost like pulling off a scab.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The first two weeks passed easily and quietly like that, as Harry slowly got stronger and more co-ordinated in the water. The mornings got progressively easier as his muscles caught up to the activity and he even began to notice that his eyes took less time to adjust to changes in light levels. He soon had enough energy to help with lunch more actively and Severus was sad to discover his very high proficiency; the boy cooked like an adult.

On Harry's part, he was finding it novel and strange to have specific time to himself each afternoon. He read, and watched the fish outside his window, played with Hedwig... It was surreal and time and time again, he found himself waiting, watching and listening for the next barked order, or exclamation of disappointment. It was easy to remember that the Dursley's were not around but difficult to _know_ , in the deep, animal parts of his mind, that they were not going to appear at his door. He found himself appreciating the Professor's company outside of these times, because he could concentrate on him, then.

They did not speak of the Dursley's, 'for now' Snape said, and Harry relaxed as time passed.

Hagrid came and went, once bringing a batch of biscuits that a planet-born had made, which they enjoyed together. Hearing about other students made Harry curious about the Academy, made him worry about it, so he studied in the afternoons, when he was awake at least.

Snape mentioned the different subject teachers when he was familiarizing Harry with the material; Harry found it harder to be apprehensive about a class when he knew that the teacher had a soft spot for Oscar the Octopus, or a particular liking for cats. He taught him how to come to attention, how to be 'at ease', what muster was. He gave him a formal check-up every two days, but Harry knew that he was watching whenever they were in the same space, which was often. He taught him how to give a status report; concise and of pertinent information; Harry began to have a feel for what life would be like, the structure and order that was required on board a Battle Cruiser. Slowly, his nerves diminished into excitement and anticipation.

Snape didn't ever leave him alone for very long; his free time in the afternoon was punctuated by the man strolling past and looking in on him, usually with a distracted, absent look and some obscure bit of equipment in hand. It was nice and novel; Harry was used to being alone for days, sometimes. Hours, certainly... Here, he and Snape were alone, but in good company. Harry thought it might have something to do with his frailty; some days he had trouble doing his stretches in the morning and Snape would be there to gently pull his muscles out or rub a heating gel into the tendons of the offending joint, often a knee or ankle, but sometimes his shoulders, like the first day. Six times he fell asleep over lunch or playing with Hedwig and six times he found himself waking up, warm and comfortable in his bed.

Occasionally he would sit at his window, with its panoramic view of the sea bed and let himself be sad about the Dursleys. Or angry. He thought that he should probably be confused too, but he'd always known that they hadn't wanted him... which he found sad in and of its self. They had constantly reminded him that there was very little between him and the dreaded orphanage. Such thoughts always left him nervous and unsettled, nothing had really changed; he was still just Harry, and all he had to reassure himself was the nameplate on his door and a seven-year promise for schooling, it was all a bit too intangible. But then, when he was feeling sad, Hedwig would always drop whatever she was investigating and come to comfort him. She was very tangible indeed; her long, feathery tail would curl around his throat, her sticky little hands would bury in his hair and Harry would remember the things Hagrid had told him on his first and best birthday.

He was in such a state, staring out of the window solemnly when Snape turned up, some thirteen days after their arrival to the Thrace. He heard the man come in; his heavy magnetic boots made a deep-toned thump even if Snape walked very lightly, which he did most of the time. It wasn't the first time Harry had been caught like this; Snape had never mentioned anything before but Harry had a feeling that his 'for now' had just run out.

"Mr Potter." came the soft greeting from just behind his left shoulder, accompanied by a warm hand on his right.

"Professor." Harry replied just as softly and looked up past the stern face to black eyes glittering with concern and eyebrows slightly pinched into a frown.

"Are you comfortable here? The food, the exercise?" He was asked as the hand tightened on his shoulder fractionally.

Harry didn't know what to say, it wasn't how he had imagined this conversation going... "I... yes, it's good and I'm stronger and..." He stopped his stuttering and let his shoulders droop; he knew what the professor was truly asking. "No..." He let the pause drag out as he thought about how to say it, the eventually it just burst out of him, all on its own. "I know you won't send me to the orphanage, I do! You've been great and helped me and are healing me and...! but I can't _believe_ it! I'm no use, you don't let me clean, or do the breakfast on my own, or make dinner. I _know_ the Dursley's were weird and wrong and logically, it all makes sense, but they were family and even they made me earn my keep! And I feel like... What's going to happen when you finally work it out, and I've spent all this time being useless and pathetic?" Harry realised that he was short of breath, as if he'd just run up stairs then found the thought absurdly out of place, considering ships didn't have stairs. He tried to stop and take a deep breath but pent up tension wound around his ribs and tightened; stopping his efforts in his throat.

Hedwig's frantic chattering filtered through the rapidly darkening haze, along with Snape's voice, telling him something he couldn't grasp. He felt the world tilt and heard a shocking and rather darkly muttered swearword before being swept in close to Snape's torso and thumped soundly on his back. The blow knocked all the air out of him and the tightness across his ribs disappeared with it. He drew in a huge shuddering breath and the haze and buzzing in his ears receded.

"-hoped this wouldn't happen, by Orion's great codpiece... Harry? Concentrate, Mr Potter; can you hear me?" Large hands were smoothing over the, admittedly slightly tender, spot where Snape had thumped him and holding his head stable. Which was fortunate; Harry did not feel stable at all. He made his breathing even out by dint of will, remembering to actually breathe _out_ this time;

"I can hear you," He croaked, "Sorry, sir..."

Snape's chest expanded against his side and the sigh that followed ruffled his hair, "So it would seem; do not apologise for something I should have spoken to you about a week ago."

The world tipped and shifted and Snape gathered him up again, like he sometimes did after swimming. Harry blinked slowly into the middle distance as he was carried across the room but Hedwig was having none of it; she was clinging tightly to his shirt with her feet and Harry could feel feathers against his belly from where her tail had curled through the gap between shirt buttons. Her hands came up and stuck to his cheeks and much chattering was done until he looked her in the eye and at least tried to smile.

Snape sat down of the edge of the bed but did not put him down, Harry was grateful; he was warm and experience had told him that he was safe like this, secure.

"I won't be sent to an orphanage, will I?" He asked, calmer.

"No, you won't. Albus Dumbledore will not let that happen, just as Hagrid, and I, would not." Snape assured, his voice rumbling inches from Harry's ear. "Now that we have you, we will not let you go."

Harry's throat constricted and his eyes burned; Hedwig patted the tears away when they escaped. "But _why_? I don't understand... I'm not my mum, or my dad, I didn't fight in the war, I'm just an errand boy for some fat, lazy mudder!" He knew he was very close to a growl and that a bit of his anger at his uncle was escaping his control.

"You're right, you aren't your father, or Lily Evans, as much as I expected you to be, as much as you look like him. But you are still their son." Snape's arms tightened around him and he pressed in closer; the man's voice had hitched and Harry wanted to comfort him, like he was comforting Harry. "Lily and James Potter were well loved, Harry, and we would care for you just for that, even if we had not already seen your courage and strength."

Harry shivered and shook his head, keeping it tucked in close to Snape's chest, "Then WHY? Why the Dursleys? Why..." His voice broke and he couldn't continue; speaking the name was bad enough.

"Fear, Harry. Terrible and twisted fear..." Snape's voice grew gravely and harsh,

"The war had just ended... it was madness; broken, dying ships filled the lanes. Shrapnel punched holes in our hulls for months after the fighting had ended and our home stations were in pieces, loosing air. The stories filled the news, even down here. Dumbledore sent you planet-side with your godfather and his... friend in the hopes that you would be kept free of the chaos. They were supposed to keep you safe, but that was before we discovered the spy in our ranks. He... Peter Pettigrew, destroyed them both before he met his own end."

Harry sobbed and shook; he didn't want to know that people who had cared for him had been betrayed and didn't want to feel the anger lurking under his skin. He gripped Snape's uniform jacket, hard and bit into the fabric at his wrist to restrain the turmoil. He didn't want to think about how, in weak moments in his cupboard, he had wished his parents had not been so selfish as to die, or about his anger at what had been his lot in life.

"They did not die but... they didn't survive either. I'm sorry, Harry... Their madness was not something we could save them from. You may meet them, one day."

Harry could just nod; what could he say to that? His throat was too tight and his mind too jumbled to do anything else.

"Without your godfather, there was no one to protect you from the Terran government; your DNA was used to find your closest blood relative and we could do nothing. For years, VCers weren't allowed into the atmosphere, let alone planet-side; we were anathema, creatures of war and known mostly from vid's of the destruction. By the time planet-side trading was allowed again, your aunt had been convinced to take out a restraining order on VCers in general and Hogwarts staff in particular, by her husband. We fought hard, Harry... I promise you that; your godfather, Black and his companion, Lupin were deported to Ottery Station, and Dumbledore petitioned the government time on time... but the war was simply too high a hurdle. I am so sorry, Harry..." He murmured into Harry's hair, his voice having gotten quieter and softer as he had gone on. The silence stretched on and Harry made the effort to put himself back together, feeling changed and unbalanced by what had been said.

"So you tried, at least... thanks, for doing that much, it means a lot." He said through his daze, overwhelmed.

"We did not want to leave you there, Harry, you are one of us and many could not bear to let you go. Many people will be very happy to see you." Harry pushed himself up a little, so he could look Snape in the eye.

"Like Madam Malkin?" he asked wryly.

"Like Madam Malkin." Snape replied with absolute certainty.

"She was nice, I liked her." He said, tentatively, happy to move on to other things. He would think about what Snape had said, just... not right now.

"Indeed." There was a long pause, Harry wiped his eyes on the handkerchief Snape handed him surreptitiously and then wriggled off his lap.

"I, um... er. Thank you." Harry gave up trying to explain and looked up into black eyes, hoping that Snape would understand. He did;

"You're welcome, Harry." A warm hand landed on his shoulder as Snape stood up and Harry kept his eyes on his Professors face, seeing the deep richness of emotion in his stoic expression, for all that it remained still. "Now, it is approaching six o'clock, it is time to make our way to the Mess."

The hand on his shoulder gave a brief squeeze and Harry nodded, glad that he had not given in to the panic attack and could 'make his way' on his own two feet. "Yes sir." He said, rubbing his face with his hands again to banish some of the muzz left by his crying. "Hedwig!" He called; she had vanished when he had stood. Her little face popped up over Snape's shoulder, who turned his head towards her and raised a sardonic eyebrow,

"To your Master, little one." He said, making a shooing gesture with one hand; she chattered back at him for a half second before jumping and gliding to Harry's outstretched forearm. Soon after, they were headed to the Mess, where they had a quiet, introspective meal.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The following day, Snape appeared much earlier than usual in the afternoon; Harry was just opening screens at his desk to read about the mysterious game called 'Quidditch', played in zero g, and the sport of all spacers, be they sky-born or earth-born. One showed a vid of a professional game, another, an excerpt from the Hogwarts Handbook and a third, a rundown of positions. It was enthralling to watch, even if he hadn't a clue yet as to _what_ , exactly, was going on, and he had trouble tearing his eyes away from the vid in order to look up what the '0' on the most mobile player's back referred to. He paused it when his door swished open and turned to greet Snape; he stood to attention, like Snape had showed him a few days ago, with a grin. Snape's look of veiled amusement made it worthwhile; the professor had told him that only 'captain on deck' required coming to attention without being explicitly told to, but Harry had argued that _technically_ Snape was the Thrace's captain, sort of.

"At ease, Mr Potter," he said as his trouser leg was assaulted by Hedwig as she climbed it to greet him. He gave her his hand once she reached his knee and she stuck to it with her strong little hands, "Hedwig." He gave her a serious nod as he held her up at face level. Harry smiled at her antics and relaxed his posture.

"Afternoon, sir." The lemuro glided back to him, and he held out his arm for her to land on.

"Indeed."He replied, his amusement lingering under his stern features. He tugged his sleeve down, ostensibly to straighten it, though Hedwig was so light that she hadn't affected it much. "Get a conduction shirt on, Harry. I think it's time you tried your Interface again."

Harry's heart leapt in excitement and he nodded quickly; they had spoken about that, and he had been waiting for Snape's go-ahead eagerly. His trunk was open before the door had closed behind the Professor and Hedwig got an excited, one armed hug as he pulled out the full length black and green shirt, which he had yet to wear. The neoprene-like material hugged very close to his skin; it had to touch everywhere to be effective. He adjusted the collar, pulling it up to the back of his head, and almost felt the ghost of the few moments in which he had worn the Interface before. It was truly exhilarating.

The excitement blew away the last of the cobwebs and thoughts of strange sports from Harry's head as he lifted out the secure metal box that had been packed so carefully in his trunk. He hurried to follow the Professor, palming the control to the sliding door and only controlling his bouncing by standing to attention in the half-second it took to open, Hedwig on his shoulder. Snape was just returning from his room, uniform coat and his personal data pad in hand, and raised an eyebrow at Harry's impatience; Harry looked down at himself and found himself shoeless.

Snape recommended he change his trousers too, to the non-absorbent shorts he'd been wearing for swimming in, and to grab his breather, Harry didn't know why. So it was a few minutes later than Harry had hoped when they began walking towards what the professor called his 'lab', explaining that it was where he ran cybernetic gel research over the summer. Harry had a brief thought that he had been taking all the man's time, away from something, it was apparent, that he found deeply interesting. He dismissed the thought quickly, however; now was not the time, and lengthened his stride.

Hedwig was left behind in the end, much to her confusion, with a mussel to pry open and some fruit, which soon distracted her.


	11. Interface

_AN:I think some of you have been looking forwards to this chapter, so here you go! Enjoy and I look forwards to seeing what you think._

* * *

The lab was closer than the hydroponics bay, on the same side of the habitat ring as the converted fighter bays that held the living quarters. There was, again, a small, empty room between the corridor and the lab proper, Snape described it as an airlock, this time. He said, in an ominous voice, that the smoky shorts, gaseous accidents and explosions that accompanied a failed experiment required that the room have a separate atmosphere.

When the inner doors opened, Harry hung back; as much as he wanted to rush ahead, the room was _complicated_. There were conduits running over all the walls, floor _and_ ceiling. Fermentation tanks hung in heavily built racks along the opposite wall, while  he machines, lights and large pod-shaped containers baffled Harry's senses and made the room look infinitely big and really small  _at the same time_.

"This is so... _cool!"_   he muttered, craning his neck around. There was a snort from above and Snape steered him down the central walkway, a clear patch of deck where the conduits were covered over with black and yellow rubber. To their right was a large set of racks, filled with obscure containers, packets and tubes that Harry half recognised as part of his required equipment for his Organic Electronics course, also know as _cybernetics_!

Needless to say, Harry was rather intrigued by the whole thing. The book for the course was incredibly dull, but Harry had hope for it yet, what with the way it used terms like 'bioactive amorphus matrix'. 

The racks extended into the room in an almost honey comb structure; obviously good in zero g, but he could see that parts of the system were inaccessible at the moment. As they walked past, he could see along each cell; hundreds of ingredients, most of them hand labeled, stretched back into the shadows.

His attention was rapidly diverted, even as he was tipping his head to one side to try and read the label of a tube with a large, green hazard label on the side, by the fermentation tanks. Large, small, complex and deceptively simple; the racks held them all. Some were active, doing _something_ with their contents. The fluids inside glooped and bubbled and, in one case, fizzed, in a range of colours, from sea-foam green to a sickly, yellowish brown, through brillian red and a blue that was actually glowing. The smell was... interesting; after the scrubbed clean air of the Thrace and the fishy smells of the 'ponics bay it was a serious contrast.

Snape's hand drew him to a halt eventually and he reluctantly looked back to his teacher.

They were standing in a roughly circular area of clear deck with a metal bench on one side, a rack of ingredients that had obviously been fetched from the stores on the other and machines Harry didn't know the name of at the far end.

"Stay there, I will explain in a moment." Snape ordered; it wasn't much of an imposition, there was a _lot_  to look at. One of the large pods was nearby, held horizontal on metallic struts bolted to the floor. Harry got a good look, but didn't move, just in case he bumped into something dangerous. The outer shell was clear perspex or something like it, with ports and valves between its interior and a whole herd of conduits. Harry counted five, at least. The upper face, compared to gravity, was open like Hagrid's cockpit, once he'd lowered the dome and now that he looked, Harry could see a console on the inside; a projector hub.

Snape returned then and Harry looked back to see that the man had fetched a large fermentation tank and was locking it to the work bench with the magnetic bolts on the 'bottom' of the unit. He watched and waited, expectantly.

"Given your rather... strong reaction to the Interface in Mr Ollivanders shop, I believe it best that you are gelled for the process." Snape said as he pulled out a stool to sit on; it was rather out of place and had probably been brought up from the habitat ring. Harry fidgeted nervously, they had 'talked' about that incident after dinner one evening; Snape had apologised again for speaking to him so carelessly and in anger but had made it explicitly clear that he expected Harry to think before he did _anything_ , in future.

The lecture over, Harry had been asked to describe what he had been able to access. The man had been quiet after that; Harry hadn't been able to judge his reaction.

"Gelled?" He asked quietly, glancing at the pod.

"Indeed. We will spend the next hour fermenting a simple VC gel that will reduce the strain on your body and allow the Thrace to monitor your condition via the simulator," He gestured to the pod-shaped machine, "and relay information to the command station." He gestured to a half circle of screens and routing boards, a much more complex version of Dudley's game boards. In the centre was a chair, like the ones in the Norberta, that swiveled. The whole array was close enough to the pod, simulator, thing that Snape would be able to reach out and touch it, if he wanted to. That was a little comforting.

"Ok... I mean, yes, sir." He babbled, looking to the side, then down at the floor.

"Just remember what it felt like, that first time; you will be fine." Snape said; standing and giving Harry's shoulder a quick squeeze. Harry had had difficulty shutting up at how fantastic it had been, so he nodded and straightened his spine. "Now," announced Snape, turning back to the table, "I will give instructions, you will follow them, and there will be no mistakes. Understood?"

"Yes, sir!" He replied, hurrying to his side, by the rack of ingredients.

"We shall see." Snape said, with a raised eyebrow in his direction and a hard expression. "This is a gel-ferm Unit-1, larger and more versatile than the second in the series, though yours is more than sufficient for your lessons. Observe."

So Harry did. He watched Snape alter the temperature, light intensity and oxygen content inside the tank before setting them to twelve degrees above body temperature, ambient and atmospheric, respectively. The lid came off the tank easily then, and was set down on the bench; it too had magnetic bolts that held it in place and Harry hated to think about all the little things that having no gravity would make a mess of.

After everything was set up, the brewing could begin; the tank was hooked up to a conduit supplying clean water which snaked away to join a bundle of similarly blue-coded pipes emerging from a panel in the wall. In the same way, he had Harry hook it up to an additional power source, saying that the internal battery would last only so long.

Then Snape was giving him ingredient names, things he had never heard of: Korsakov's solution, Amytal agar, and they were carefully measured out volumetrically. Harry realised that weighing them would be pointless; you would only be able to use that on-planet, since the illusion of gravity changed with the movements of the ship. Some of the substances they measured out were incredibly sticky or viscous, one behaved like jelly and one they had to grate off a purplish-black block. Harry watched a particularly gloopy, blue liquid as it oozed out of the measuring syringe and into the tank with fascination.

Time passed quickly enough; the lid went back on, the tank filled with the prescribed volume of water and Snape turned the tank's controls to manual and told Harry to stir and cool by two degrees every three minutes. The professor then settled in to be pestered with questions while he tuned the pod.

"What do you, um... see? Or feel, I mean, with the Interface?" Harry asked, glancing away from his task to where Snape was setting up,

"Many things. It depends greatly on the machines in the vicinity. My ship, the Thanatos, sends me telemetry. Times, speeds, distances, in a spatial format." Snape replied, leaving it to Harry to work out what that meant, or ask.

Harry imagined it like 'knowing' where the barriers had been in Ollivanders shop, and just nodded; it made sense. He set off another cycle of stirring and cooling, watching the chips of purple dissolve and turn pale yellow;

"I saw a lot... it was... wow. The Norberta was there, and you were really bright, sir." He said in a distracted, vague voice; buried in the recollection.

Snape raised an eyebrow at him, though he didn't see. The gel was turning pale green as the dissolving purple-turned-yellow mixed with the thick blue goop and Harry watched while he brought up the memories. Ollivander had been bright too, would his relatives have been? Was that how the Interface modeled being a VCer, or just being alive? And he'd heard the data tablet's doing _something_...

"Do I have to... um, listen to everything? All the time?" Harry asked, apprehensive and hunkering down on his stool.

"You grow accustomed to it. Some can be blocked out and some becomes as natural as seeing and hearing with your eyes and ears." Snape returned to the bench and the comforting hand on Harry's shoulder appeared again. They fell quiet, Harry deep in his thoughts and mesmerised by the swirling colours in the tank and Snape returned to programming in the gel type and Harry's profile to the simulator.

Eighteen minutes, six cycles of stirring and cooling, after the final ingredient had gone in, the display showed the desired readings and Snape stood;

"It's done?" he said, joining Harry at the bench.

Harry nodded and pulled his hands away so Snape could reach the controls. The gel was fully combined and even in colour. Harry swallowed and glanced at the gunmetal grey box containing his Interface.

"Out of the way, Mr Potter." Snape ordered quietly as he disengaged the magnets and hefted the large tank. It was a testament to his strength that he could lift it at all; the hexagonal tank was at least ninety centimetres tall, about the size of Snape's torso and full of the thick goop. He poured it unceremoniously into the pod, commenting;

"Where we in zero-g, I would insist on it being pumped in with the pod closed and you inside but, that is unnecessary in this case." Harry peered into the pod wondering how one tank of gel was ever going to fill it but Snape hit enter on one of the keypads at the command station and water was pumped into the shell to join the gel. He watched incredulously as the gel grew in volume; not exactly mixing with the water but absorbing it somehow and growing to fill the space.

And then it was time.

Snape opened up the Interface's box and adjusted the setting on Harry's breather to 'S', so it could take an air feed from the pod's support machinery. As he connected it, the screens on the command station sprang to life and the pod began to hum, the internal screens lighting up and sensors coming online. Harry understood very little of this; all he saw was the pale green gel lighting up from the inside and screens full of incomprehensible numbers booting up

"Once you Interface, I am going to put you straight into the gel, understood? It will ease the strain on as you compensate for the new input." Snape told him seriously, placing the breather's mask over his face. Harry nodded in understanding and checked his mask, as Snape had encouraged him to, by giving it two gentle tugs. The seal was complete and he looked up at his teacher with big, green eyes.

"Ok, sir. I'm ready." He said, feeling very small; too small to fit into the man-sized simulator. Snape's piercing gaze held him for a second before he nodded and reached out to pick up the Interface, in its box.

"Very well. In your own time," he said as Harry picked the Interface up from the offered box. It greeted him with a warm yellow light and a hum. It was soothing, Harry thought, as he stroked the smooth, slightly warm shell. Snape put the box down again and Harry tipped his head forwards and brought the arms into contact with the back of his neck.

The effect was immediate; Harry drew in a deep gasp of cool air as the information flooded his senses. Colour, feel, shape and movement, all confused and mixed up. He could feel his back arching at the overload and then he was caught up effortlessly in Snape's grip.

He could see through the chaos to a familiar pale face and black features but distracting from that was the knowledge that a great awareness loomed over them both, cocooning them in warmth and safety. So big, so... so  _heavy..._ Watching, listening, as vast as the stars and warm like sunlight.

The gel buoyed his limbs up and soothed away the tension as he was lowered into it. The taught muscles across his chest relaxed and air trickled out of his mouth, and it felt so good, to just _be_ , like he could just stay like that, in that moment, forever. But, something said _breathe,_ and he did.

_What?_

He asked, silently, of the great hulking presence that had turned its attention to him.

_Thrace, T-SG573. Home._

An image appeared in front of him, the screen activating in response to the answer to his question; the Thrace, in all her retired glory, rotated slowly in an image of the sea bed. She was truly beautiful, enormous, hulking, yes, but magnificent. Her hull was arched, like the head of a shark and then broadened towards the massive bulk of the stardrive. The habitat ring encircled the centre of the hull, disappearing underneath it and into the sand and weed of the bottom.

 _Yes. Safe._ he replied, watching the image swoop to show the outline of his room, then fill in with video footage. Hedwig was sleeping in a pile of clothes dragged from the laundry to the bed.

 _Ask. Vitals?_ Came the next enquiry, this time tagged with a code that Harry recognised Snape's.

 _Permission granted._ He replied, turning his head dazedly through the gel to look at Snape.

 _Routed._ The Thrace's 'voice' was distinct, Harry realised; melodic and complex, while the message from Snape had been flat and empty in comparison, only the tag had made it recognisable.

 _Quiet. Query?_ Harry asked, his complicated question came down to just two words when he asked it of the Thrace; he wanted to know why everything had been so loud in Vertic, he'd heard many, many streams of data rushing by and the Norberta had been there, in the distance, along with a great many other ships of less consequence.

_Traffic. Many messages, much to overhear. Thanatos sleeping, Professor reducing wireless transmission._

_Acknowledged._ Harry thought he understood, now. Vertic Alley was an incredibly busy, involved place. Here, in the middle of nowhere, there was little talking going on. The Thanatos was Snape's ship so of course he would ensure that it, he?, did not interfere.

 _Query, light?_ He asked next, wondering why VCers stood out so clearly.

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

Snape skimmed over the pod's readout as it came though; the gel had already eased out the tension in Harry's limbs and his heart rate was settling back to normal. The little flicks and jitters of the boy's hands and limbs were normal as the internal screens on the simulator changed, scrolled and zoomed in response to Harry's commands.

He stood, once he was sure that Harry was experiencing no ill effects, and stepped back from the rig. He had been concerned, given the large capacity of Harry's Interface, but he seemed to be experiencing the normal range of data input. Thrace was beginning to take over the consoles; alarms that would tell him if anything changed appeared, a feed of what Harry was asking and the answers he was getting popped up. He stood over the control station, ready to move away and check the pod itself and watched the feed for a moment; Harry was asking about the Thrace's sensory systems:

_Query, see, how?_

The text came up, with a flash of images as part of the question; the view out of Harry's window and the see-through roof of the 'ponics bay, a schematic of the ship. He wondered where Harry had seen that, but not too hard; Harry studied well and promised to be a good student, on par with his mother. His chest tightened and he stared blankly at the flickering, rotating and zooming images that Harry was manipulating; Lily Potter would always be a source of pain for him and the loss of her friendship had been something it had taken him years to recover from, if he even had. True, he did not need to retreat into his lab every time he was reminded of her anymore, to hide and distract himself, but still... the gap remained; no one could compare to the robust vibrancy and strength she had been overflowing with.

Except, perhaps, her son.

Snape buried the flash of grief and turned to the simulator; now was not the time, Harry was his priority now. The surface of the gel had sealed over properly, forming a thin skin that would stop the gel floating away in zero g. It was also the proper colour and viscosity, he noted as he pressed a hand against the surface. A flurry of commands at the control panel showed systems green. The internal sensors lit up the occupant eerily through the green substance; Harry looked almost monochrome as the greenish tinge washed out the colour in his skin and turned it white to his hair and clothes' black. Only his green eyes stood out as they flicked rapidly from screen to screen, Snape was surprised that he had two running and frowned slightly; VC was taxing in its own way and at this level, more screens meant more exertion. He couldn't see their display from where he was standing, so he returned to the command station and looked at his copy of the feeds.

Once he had, he slumped down in his chair and watched with a mixture of amusement and dismay; Harry had managed, in the two minutes it had taken him to run the simulator's checks, to make contact with the Norberta via the Thrace's comm. system. Hagrid's response was appropriate; surprise, curiosity and a quick call to Snape.

The man's face appeared on a new vid screen, joining the flock around the command station. "Professor? Yeh got 'Arry there?" He asked, obviously looking off at the feed from Harry. Snape's copy of it showed that they had exchanged a few lines of text already, basic greetings.

"Afternoon, Hagrid. Yes, Mr Potter is Interfacing with the Thrace for the moment, in a simulator." He replied, sending Hagrid a few seconds of video of Harry in the pod using a quickly typed code and an Interface command. Harry smiled at the camera, to Snape's amusement, and sent another line of text straight from his mind to the comm. system.

_HarryPotter: Thanks, professor. See, Hagrid, I'm nowhere I shouldn't be!_

Snape frowned and glanced back up the logs, to try and see where the callsign had come from, but there was no indication that Harry had chosen it specifically. Usually a callsign started out as initials and a list of numbers, so the use of Harry's proper name was decidedly _un-_ usual. Hagrid's screen showed him busy with replying to the brat, so Snape queried the Thrace about it. An image of Harry's scar appeared, taken from the feed he had sent to Hagrid, along with an excerpt from the Hogwarts Handbook;

_Callsigns._

_Section 3, subsection b. Person's of significance, for the sake of convenience may use full and/or recognisable names in place of a traditional callsign._

The next line was strangely ominous, to Snape's mind, and his expression became grave.

_The Boy-Who-Lived. The Child of Stars. Hope._

He deleted the entire string, angry at the Thrace for falling into the mindset that he had managed to keep Harry away from so far. His own infamy would be hard enough to handle aboard Hogwarts, even with just the students, if the AI's got into it as well, Harry would have nowhere to retreat to. A dialogue box popped up in the same screen that he had deleted his search string from;

 _Thrace: Query, deletion?_ She asked, and Snape gave himself time to think by checking Harry's vitals and skimming through his conversation with Hagrid. He was at a loss as to how to explain to the ship; how do you convey a gut feeling, an inference based on experience and observation of a person, in code?

But then, he could have cursed at his own foolishness, the ships; Thrace, Hogwarts, even the Hogwarts Express, would always place pilot welfare first, and that would include what they could perceive of Harry's situation. He just needed to make it a little easier... Minutes later and the request was off to the data relay to be sent out to all Hogwarts Fleet ships, for AI 'eyes' only. Now, he would not be the only one looking to shield the boy from the expectation people would heap on his narrow shoulders.

_Thrace: Acknowledged. Command forwarded._

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Harry grinned into his mask when Thrace told him that Hagrid could see him,

_HarryPotter: Thanks, professor. See, Hagrid, I'm nowhere I shouldn't be!_

"Aye, well, 'ow were I supposed ta know tha'?" Came the gruff reply as Hagrid dispensed with typing out his answers. Harry had been a little aghast at how long it took the man to get out a few words, using a standard keyboard. There was the feeling of lots of chatter on the lines around Norberta, so Harry wasn't surprised that Hagrid wasn't just using his Interface, but all the same; he was glad Hagrid was talking instead.

 _HarryPotter: It doesn't matter, I guess. How're you? Do you have anyone with you?_ He asked. It had been three day's since Hagrid's last check in at the Thrace,

"Can' complain! The nice lass wi't cookies went ter t' Alley today, met 'em at t' Leaky. Bit o' trouble wit' her books, but nowt as can't be 'andled." Hagrid replied.

 _HarryPotter: She's alright though? And... and her parents went too?_ He sent, glad that he wasn't using his voice, even though he hadn't been able to avoid the break in the words.

Hagrid's voice was sorrowful when he replied, "Aye, 'Arry. Her parents came' too." He paused and cleared his throat, Harry turned his face away from the vid screen and curled up slightly; the gel was comfortable and warm and right now, he wanted to hide.

"Dunnae think about it, 'Arry. Ye've got us, now." He finished gently, "Now, 's nigh on time fer tea, why don't you head on an get yerself fed."

"Kay, Hagrid," He muttered aloud, realising how tired he was beginning to get. To his own ears, his voice sounded thick and muffled by the gel, but Hagrid seemed to understand him; he did wonder how Hagrid sounded normal, though. "I'll see you soon?" He asked, feeling very small.

"Aye, lad, day af'er t'morrow. Sky speed, 'Arry."

"Sky speed." Harry replied and the vid screen blinked out of existence, replaced by a small 'connection terminated' sign. The screens he had had open before he'd heard the Norberta caught his attention again and got him to smile, just a little bit; Hogwarts was very, very cool... The habitat ring was big, but the rest of the ship was _massive._ The picture was from the Thanatos, as Snape had pulled away from the fighter deck; the huge shields on the ships spineward side had pulled open and the enormous solar panels that they usually protected where open to the sea-filtered sun. Harry zoomed in on the hydroponics bay until the image's pixels where just visible and there was no point in going in any closer; it was like a jewel, sparkling in the sunlight. Scanning aft along the ships back, he found cannon emplacements, huge antennae and transmission dishes, and every so often he would spot a porthole when the sun was reflecting off the glass. Or what he thought was glass, anyway.

He straightened back out from his curled up position and reached out to manipulate the screens manually, like a mudder would do. It was so _slow_ in comparison... but, he realised, it was taking much less energy, even though the gel dragged on his limbs and slowed his movements down. All the same, it gave him a reason for being tired now and he sent a quick message to Snape; he'd learned to just say something, Snape would just see it eventually, anyway.

Looking over, he couldn't see the professor straight away; for a moment he panicked, his limbs jerking, but Thrace quickly assured him that he wasn't alone, even as she set of an angry alarm to call Snape back from collecting towels. She showed him an internal feed of the man striding back, looking thunderous and worried all at once, with a stack of folded fabric under his arm.

_Sorry. I'm ok now._

_Acknowledged. However, constant supervision recommended._

Harry cringed a little; when she put it like that, it made him sound like a toddler. He did want Snape to come back though, and he recognised that he was being contrary in his own head. The man-shaped shadow near the pod reappeared and Harry tried to move towards the surface of the gel.

 

 


	12. The Game

Snape flipped the thick towel out and laid it on the workbench for now, muttering to the Thrace as he did so;

"Understood, you damn ship. I get the message," he raised his voice slightly, "disengage alarm," and sent the authorization code through his Interface. He grumbled that the Thrace had even requested it but, he conceded, he should have warned Harry before just wandering off.

He returned to the pod and broke the skin on the gel to grip Harry's wrist, with which he was reaching towards the surface with difficulty. Once Harry's hand had fastened around his wrist in return, he tapped a command into the pod's controls with his free hand and the whole thing _buzzed_. The gel inside liquefied and Harry was drawn to the surface by his grip on Snape's wrist. He moved quickly to prevent the boy from sinking again and plunged his free arm into the softened gel and around Harry's shoulders.

"Mr Potter, my hand, if you will." He said with a raised eyebrow. Harry quickly released his wrist, looking slightly disorientated by the sudden movement. With his freed hand, Snape removed the breather from the internal face of the pod and disengaged Harry's mask. Gel would drip everywhere, he realised with a grimace, clean up would have to wait until the morning, however.

"Ready, Mr Potter?" He asked, shuffling him so he could lift him bodily out of the pod.

"Yes, sir." He replied, gathering his breather up in one hand and holding onto Snape with the other.

Snape nodded in reply and hauled the boy out of the gel completely. After a moment to let the substance run off his clothes and skin he turned to sit him on the towel on the workbench. The breather ended up on the metal table and he pulled the heavy fabric up, around Harry's shoulders.

"'s cold out here, sir." He said, just his head showing from the towel. He was blinking in the slow way that indicated mental fatigue; Harry often did it after spending the afternoon studying textbooks on his tablet. The gel had slicked down his nest of hair and he barely moved once Snape had him wrapped up; the child looked less like Potter every day...

He very gently tipped Harry's head forwards so that his brow, and that infamous star-burst scar, rested against his chest. A gentle brush of fingers shifted sticky hair off the Interface and bared Harry's nape. He, with great care, slid his fingers around the object and it obligingly disengaged. The soft yellow glow that it emitted, so unlike the midnight blue that Severus' gave off, faded away and Harry slumped bonelessly against his chest. He wrapped an arm around the boys back to keep him upright and used a corner of towel to wipe away the gel that had been under the device.

"The pod is temperature controlled, it's not cold out here, it was merely warm in there," he said softly as he reached to initiate the cleaning cycle; the gel was vented out and water jets squirted the sides clean with a rumbling hiss.

Harry wouldn't need gelling as much next time; the stress his small frame would feel would be much less, but perhaps to be safe... Severus' mind spun with medical and technical calculations as his hand flickered over the controls. That done, he turned back to Harry and picked him up with just as much ease as he had two weeks previously; the boy had a long way to go.

"That was amazing..." The child murmured into Snape's conduction shirt, he 'hmm'ed in reply and set off back towards their living quarters and the shower. "Thrace is nice," Apparently 'sleepy' was no barrier to talk, in this case. He sighed quietly; at least the exercise had gone well, all told.

"She is a good ship," he replied. His long legged stride took them quickly to the modified fighter deck; he headed straight to the bathroom at the far end. Harry was, for want of a better word, snuggling against his shoulder and he was glad that he had had the foresight to take off his uniform jacket. The gel clung to his conduction shirt as it was designed to but was not uncomfortable. Harry's hair seemed able to hold an inordinate amount of the substance.

The bathroom door opened automatically as he approached and he sent a quick command to the Thrace to run the hot water; Harry did have trouble keeping warm when tired and it would be best to mitigate that immediately. Snape paused as he set the boy down on the counter next to the sink; it was strange, how easily he had adapted to the child's frailty; Harry's own stoic nature was an aid, no doubt, he did not complain about being tired or reject the help Snape gave. He didn't ask for aid automatically either, and gave him long, grateful looks when he got it; Snape could never escape the reminder that this, as hard as it was on Harry and as tired as he was after the mornings hydrotherapy, was _still better_ than what the Dursleys had demanded of him.

Harry had a remarkably mature approach to life, which made his moments of childish glee, something Snape had never found endearing, a thing of great significance. Each time Snape found him reading the news feed first thing in the morning or came across him taking the chalky all-round-unpleasant pills he'd prescribed him the look on his face was... old. Knowing. Snape could think of no other words for it.

Steam started billowing out of the shower as the cubicle filled with hot air and Snape peeled back the sodden towel from his charge. The dazed look on Harry's face had faded towards a deep contemplation and Snape had to look away before his mind labelled the eleven year old boy in front of him rather older than that. He tried to clear his head with a deep breath and lifted the boys chin to try and get his attention;

"Mr Potter? Status report." He barked, causing the boy's eyes to snap to focus and his spine to straighten.

"Yes sir! Um, I'm a bit dizzy, sir, sorry... but I think I can stand, at least to have a shower." Came the surprisingly cogent reply. Snape gave an approving nod and lifted the little figure off the counter. Harry's knees buckled briefly when his feet first too his weight but Snape just held still and Harry righted himself soon enough. His pale little hands gripped Snape's forearms for a moment before gradually easing away as his confidence returned.

"Very well, do not hesitate to call out." He said, conjuring the stern expression that he commonly used on older cadets, sure in the knowledge that they understood the consequences it promised. The boy nodded and quirked a faint, one sided grin;

"Thanks, sir. I reckon I'll need it at some point." Snape's chest constricted with conflicting emotions; firstly, how candid a patient, free of the usual childish rebellion and protestation, a genuine contrast with the bullish, foolhardy behaviour of most young men he had ever treated. Secondly, that faint expression of gratitude, so sad and _knowing..._ Snape had thought he'd squashed his more murderous impulses; it would appear he was less effective than he thought. 

He gave the boys shoulder a squeeze and took a step back, allowing him to move freely in the space. He retained his eagle eye on the frail little body's movements but did not interfere; Harry stepped into the shower, conduction shirt and all and turned his face to the hot water with obvious pleasure. Reassured by this, Snape turned his back to the wall beside the shower cubby and slid down it to sit, legs askew, on the floor. The sound of wet fabric hitting the shower floor emerged and he relaxed further, though still attentive to the sounds of the shower.

"You where looking at the Thrace's plans, correct?" He enquired out of curiosity,

"M-hm. Oh! I mean, yes sir. She was very obliging." Harry replied, slightly muffled by water, "I was impressed, sir, especially by her turning circle."

"Indeed, half a ship length when stationary, I believe?" He prompted, trying to wheedle out of the boy what he had spent half an hour doing through the screens in the pod and his Interface.

"Yeah, you'd still have momentum in the same direction as you'd been travelling in, if you were moving, though. She said that was important for braking, sir, why's that?" Harry asked, slurring only slightly and almost speaking to himself until the final, direct question.

"Purely convenience; it enables the primary engines to be used for deceleration, and causes the crew to experience g in primarily one direction, barring manoeuvres." He refrained from mentioning that fighters used the technique to train their guns on following enemies; Harry's heritage would push him far enough in that direction without his encouragement. They spoke, with lengthening intervals between sentences, about the thrust system and the various cameras and sensors Harry had looked at. Snape was rather amused by his fascination with the ocean-bottom landscape around them.

They did not go on to talk about Hogwarts, but Snape could tell there was something Harry wished to ask, or say. He let the silence draw on;

"Sir?" Harry said, pulling a towel into the stall to bundle himself up in. Snape was rather pleased that he had not had to intervene, up until this point at least.

"Yes Mr. Potter?" He replied, pulling himself to his feet and throwing the cloth he had used to clean the gel of his arms and chest onto the pile with the towel he had initially wrapped Harry up in.

"Being gelled..." Snape didn't interrupt, even as Harry's pause grew too long, he just picked up a second towel and began drying the boy's hair, steadying him with a hand on his shoulder. "It was nice, sir..." There was a heavy note of sadness that Snape could not identify in his voice, so he remained quiet.

"Like a hug. I didn't know what hugs were like until Hagrid." He finished, bowing his head. "And... and I could feel so much..." There was a brief wobble in the boys' posture so Snape pressed gently on his back until Harry was leaning against his torso. Time for rest, he thought; the shock on Harry's system was greater than normal and his body less able to cope to begin with.

"You have done very well, Mr Potter, in the face of adversity. It is time for you to rest," he said; while he found it difficult to address Harry's comment about physical contact, but he would at least be able to sit with him until he fell asleep.

"Yes, sir... m' pretty sleepy..." the boy replied, causing that tiny upturn of the mouth that passed for a smile in Snape's book. He half-knelt and hefted the boy up against his side, keeping him bundled up in the over-large towel.

"Indeed, you may sleep for twenty minutes or so, and I will wake you for dinner." He said as he left the bathroom and returned to Harry's door.

"I can help, if you want..." Harry mumbled with a very small voice, harking back to their conversation of the day before.

"That will not be necessary, but I appreciate the offer." He said, with a mixture of seriousness and amusement.

"Kay..." The trail-off at the end of Harry's sentences was getting longer and Snape sighed; he would be asleep before he could put his pyjamas on. He would have to bundle the boy in one of his large shirts again; the only thing he could dress him in with his eyes closed and the boy mostly asleep. He would respect his privacy, even if Harry was unaware that it was important yet.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Dinner turned out to be rice again; Harry was beginning to think that it was some kind of sick-person super-food, it never left him feeling nauseous or over full, even when he was expecting it to. The sauce was good, too, and he sleepily munched his way through his bowl without further thought, it was meaty rather than fishy for once, but he wasn't going to complain. Snape was doing the same, from a plate, since he wasn't stuck in bed. He'd set his tray on a barrier he'd set at table height and put Hedwig's bowl of rehydrated mango and raw shrimp on Harry's bedside table. The crunching sounds were much less disturbing than they had been two weeks before, but still, they were pretty gross. Harry knew she preferred shelled food, nuts included, but the _noise..._

His nap had perked him up fairly well, but he still agreed with Snape that he should stay in bed; the lap around the pool that morning had been no less strenuous than usual and then he'd tried his Interface as _well_ , so it felt good to be curled up, around a warm bowl of nice food, as he steadily filled his stomach.

"Can I try that again, tomorrow?" He asked, blinking across at Snape, who looked up from his food and lowered his cutlery.

"Yes, I believe that will be prudent." The Interface box was sitting on his trunk and Harry glanced at it longingly. "Once more gelled, then we shall see about Interfacing un-aided." Harry nodded; he had no objections to going back in the pod, for as many times as he needed to.

"It was nice to hear about what Hagrid's been up to." He mumbled, picturing the man's beetle-black eyes poking out from all that hair.

Snape 'hmm'ed in response, returning to his food; "Indeed, and news of your future year-mate."

Harry felt like Snape was fishing for something but didn't know what. "Yeah, I hope they're, y'know, nice... Um, Dudley always... yeah, I didn't like making friends; they'd always get picked on." He said, sticking some rice grains to his finger and giving them to Hedwig. Snape raised an eyebrow at this, but didn't comment.

"You must trust your crew with your life, Harry, we do not permit internal conflict." Snape said. Harry thought he might be trying to reassure him, but it was hard to tell. It seemed like Snape wasn't fishing anymore, either; that hanging tone had left his voice. He wondered briefly about it, but decided not to ask.

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

The mornings swimming had gone very well, with Snape throwing in some breather-less exercises to improve his lung capacity. Harry had been enthusiastic and the improvement since his arrival on the Thrace was obvious; he moved easily through the water now, with grace. He had copied, for the most part, Snape and Hedwig as they moved through the water so he used a slightly unusual combination of coordinated kicking and breast-stroke arms that worked well for his slight physique.

They had caught a large salmon, between the two of them and a rather large net, some of which they had for lunch, and the remainder they froze. Harry had been most impressed by the large, strong animal and had thanked it for being eaten.

"No wonder you got on with Aaron," Snape'd said as he de-scaled the creature in preparation for taking the muscle off the bones. Harry had looked up bemusedly from the greener-than-green juice he was making from a grape-like fruit but had, receiving no clarification, returned to his task.

Harry was still drinking the aforementioned juice, from a squeezy sports bottle, when they were on their way to Snape's lab after the meal.

"Professor?" he asked as he stared out of a large window to the outside, seeing the curved surface of the habitat ring stretch over the skin of the Thrace,

"Yes, Mr Potter?" the man replied a little absently, working on something on his tablet as they walked.

"Are there lots of people who'll be like the people at the Bank?" he said pulling his eyes away from the porthole and looking down at his hands. He heard Snape sigh and put his tablet away;

"I will not lie to you, Harry; there will be whispers, and looks, especially among the pupils, but even among the staff." He said with a grave voice, "I cannot guarantee that it will be easy, or fair."

"Oh, I guess that's..." Harry mumbled at the floor, trailing his teacher mournfully.

"But I will say one thing; there will always be somewhere for you to go, if you need some peace." Snape said somewhat cryptically, his voice sounding a little far off. Harry glanced up curiously and found that Snape was looking at something very far away, through the bulkhead, and there was an old sadness there too that he couldn't quite understand. After a moment, the strangeness was broken by a brisk shake of the professor's head and the return of his ever present stern expression. "My office is always open to you, Harry."

Harry nodded, a warm feeling in his chest, and they were off again at a brisk pace, and reached the lab without further comment. The room, complete with its mess of trailing cables and conduits was the same as it had been when they left it the day before, though some of the gel units on the racks had changed colour over night. The pod was clean but there was a trail of dried gel drips from the edge of the Perspex to the bench and Harry's breather was still covered in the stuff too.

"Do not look so concerned, Harry, it comes off easily enough." Snape said as they reached the clear, circular space that bordered the pod-shaped simulator. The rack of ingredients they had used before was still there and Snape took out a package of solvent-soaked cleaning cloths. Handing one to Harry, he used his to wipe up the gel on the side of the pod. Harry went for his breather, as a priority piece of equipment and soon had the gel off it and had moved on to the bench.

Once they had cleaned, Snape looked at Harry appraisingly for a long moment before nodding and moving without comment to set up the tank. He explained what he was doing as he began extracting ingredients from the rack, and Harry soaked up the information with a serious little frown of understanding.

"We will be using a lower concentration of Amytal, I believe its muscle relaxant properties will be in lesser demand, as you are somewhat accustomed to this process now." And so on. He lost Harry soon enough, but he thought that Snape wasn't really talking to him, anyway; his muttered tone implied that he was merely thinking aloud for Harry's benefit. The fermentation process was much the same and Harry made the necessary adjustments to the stirring and temperature.

When it was time, Harry stripped out of his uniform and shoes, leaving him in a conduction shirt and swimming trunks. He felt eager, with none of the nerves he'd had that time the day before; he wanted to talk to Thrace, to _see_ in that way that he had no words for yet. He had his breather on and set by the time Snape had poured the gel into the pod; as the water rushed in, the bluish-green gel expanded as it had the day before. After receiving a nod in confirmation, Harry reached for the Interface and plucked it out of the padded box.

"Should I...?" He asked, looking up at Snape again and raising the device slightly,

"Indeed. Come stand with me, and attempt to restrain your initial response." Snape replied silkily, tapping a final command into the control console and turning to face Harry. "Try to resist the urge to vanish into the data; concentrate of the external world."

"I think I can do that, sir..." He swallowed, tentatively putting a steadying hand on Snape's arm and tilting his head forwards so he could bring the Interface's contacts to the back of his neck.

As before, the flood of information was immediate, jolting him and making his spine arch into the Interface. He managed to avoid falling over and he could still see, a bit, in the normal spectrum, so he assumed that he had indeed made some progress, but already the muscles of his back burned and his breath came in short pants. Snape's strong hands had him up and in his arms after a few seconds, just long enough for him to get a feel for what his response was and try to relax, a little ineffectually.

The soothing gel felt fantastic as it closed over him and he could feel its effects on his body very quickly. He deliberately went limp, with its help, and blinked at the dark, gel distorted shape above him. Snape was just fixing his breather into the feeds on the inside of the pod and Thrace was looming over them both, waiting for her turn.

Once Snape's arms were gone, the surface smoothed out almost unnaturally quickly and the distortion lessened. Harry watched calmly, trying to stay on this side, in the physical reality, for a little longer before getting immersed in the data banks. The dark shape that was Snape moved away and Harry turned his head to the right to follow his movements; he saw him pick something up from the command console, the arc of vidscreens and keyboards around a large, bolted down, g chair. A moment later Snape's voice reached him through the gel, relatively undistorted.

"Status report, Mr Potter." He was saying as he sat down at the command console and began activating screens and feeds.

"I'm ok," Harry replied, only a little breathless. He had to make a conscious effort to speak out loud; it seemed less natural than just sending the words through the Interface. That, in and of itself, was strange to Harry, but he tried not to dwell on it. "The gel helps."

"Very well, Mr Potter. You have three minutes to settle, feel free to continue your research from yesterday." Snape replied through his headset.

Harry acknowledged that non-verbally; he didn't realise what he had done but what Snape received was a quiet two tone sound and a green glow on the edge of the feed he had set up to show what Harry was up to. The teacher made no comment, either, so Harry slipped into talking with the Thrace.

She, it, was pleased with him, for some reason and he was soon delving into her systems and marvelling at their complexity. The communications network caught his attention on his way 'past' and he, politely, asked for an explanation of the brilliantly coloured web that presented itself straight to his brain.

Thick, navy blue lines, looking like thick streams of glowing... something, connected Snape to Thrace and Thanatos, intricate networks of copper raced from system to system within the great hulk that was his home now, with smaller feeds of red, green and yellow stretching from points on her external surface to join up with the network. Thanatos was a dark, bluish purple, collecting information from Thrace's main spine, the literal backbone of the ship that held the largest of the data streams, and disseminating lines all over her hull and guts. The most spectacular of them all was what Thrace had labelled the Communication Trunk, a thick, intense stream of many colours that began at the largest node in the Thrace's system and vanished into the distance.

The strangest thing, Harry found, was that he didn't know how he knew the navy blue corresponded to Snape, or the purple to his ship, though he probably could have worked it out if he had thought about it for a moment. But the point was that he hadn't _needed_ to; the information had just appeared, seamlessly in his mind as he looked out over the immense, circuit board-like map. He soon closed his eyes and the image was even clearer against the darkness inside his eyelids.

The large, central node of Thrace's system glowed brilliantly, showing just how much information was held there. He tried to look at it closer but the resolution refused to increase; after a moment a red box containing the words 'access denied' flashed up and he heard Snape's voice again. He opened his eyes and closed the map, as if it was a screen. The lines vanished and he glanced back out at the physical world.

"That's enough, Harry. Access to the system like that is generally restricted to fourth years." Snape admonished and Harry was reminded that he had been given a time limit. A quick request showed that he had over run, Thrace provided him with a counter that was already in the negative by seventy three seconds.

 _HarryPotter: Sorry sir, I didn't mean to take so long._ He said, the sentence popping up on the feed Snape was monitoring.

"Accepted, Mr Potter, your research was appropriate." Snape said, transferring something from his personal data pad to the command console with a flick of the wrist. Harry could hear the data streaming across and was sure that, if he could still see it, there would be a line of light on the map to indicate the exchange, the connection.

"This, Mr Potter, is a training program," Snape said as he typed in a line of code, "designed to improve precision and reaction times in VCers."

Harry turned his attention to the screens on the inside of the pod. He hadn't used them yet that day so he activated one and the program appeared when Snape was done typing and hit enter.

_HarryPotter: Received, sir. What do you want me to do?_

The screen was expanding, even as he sent the message, spreading a black backdrop across most of the upper half of the pod. By the time it stopped, the black, star studded image stretched from above his head to just below his knees and filled his vision sideways. If he cocked his head, just so, he could look out past it and see Snape's boots.

"The objective is to tag the beacons, using as few shots as possible, in as little time as you are able." Snape said. The items in question blinked into existence on the screen as he mentioned them; beacons were large, crystalline objects with red lights blinking from one end and a loud transponder signal. Thrace popped up a description of a tagging gun too; an explosive depressurization powered barrel that propelled electronic tags at speed, allowing an AI to track an object accurately.

"On my mark, in three," as the slow countdown commenced, the sample beacon disappeared "two," and Harry hurriedly skimmed the targeting window for how to operate the thing, fortunately, it was very simple;

"one," he closed the instructions with a hurried mental command and turned back to the simulator's main screen; the image of the Black, scattered with stars, began to move as if he was travelling slowly and an instrument panel, full of readouts he did not understand, appeared in an arc on a new screen that curved around at hand height.

"Mark!" a beacon appeared, drifting slowly from right to left across simulated space, while Harry's 'ship' moved steadily forwards. He bit his lip under his mask and focused on the slowly moving target,

"En- um, engage reti-... um professor, how do you pronounce that?" Harry asked, nervously aware that there was a timer in the corner of the screen.

"Reticule, Potter. Keep your head, and take your time." said Snape on the tails of a heavy sigh.

"Yes Sir! Engage reticule; ready tube one." Harry said with deliberate confidence. A blue aiming box appeared on the image, and the sounds of metal against metal played into the simulator. Harry jumped in surprise but focused again when he realised that the noise was from loading the tag.

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly as he concentrated on the moving beacon, causing the reticule to jump to it. For a moment the little box jumped, fixing on the target, then getting left behind but Harry frowned and focused on matching the speeds and the target and reticule started to become synchronised.

"Fire." He commanded, saying it out loud out of nerves and sending it digitally through the Interface at the same time. There was a pop and a line of blue light showed the path of the tag, quickly just a speck of light against the black. It took all of a second to reach the target, by which time the beacon had moved out of the way; the tag sailed into the far distance and blinked out.

"Again, Mr Potter, use the second barrel." Snape ordered,

"Yes, sir. Ready tube two, um..."

"Reload, Harry."

"Right... _reload_ tube one," Harry said, and a quiet, thrumming whir started up as the virtual barrel reset and a new tag loaded. This time, when he aimed, he tried to compensate for how far it would travel in the time it took the tag to get there;

"Fire, tube two." The tag hit the beacon with a 'bing' as the computer logged a successful strike, but it didn't take; the clip sent the crystalline beacon spinning off at an angle and Harry lost it off screen. "Reload, tube two," he commanded and the barrel was reset, but he ignored it as the next target drifted into view; blue this time.

He concentrated, trying to imagine where it would be in a few moments, tracking it with his eyes, then pushing the reticule further ahead and...

"Fire!"

The tag hit and flared bright blue as it stuck, the beacon jerked at the impact but the little electronic tag was firmly attached. A surge of satisfaction gave Harry an enormous, satisfied grin as he scored the point. He had only a moment to celebrate before the next beacon appeared and he was setting up the next shot.


	13. The Express

Harry emerged from the pod tired and triumphant; the game most thoroughly Well Played. He had lost count of how many beacons he had hit and how many had got away, but he had soon been using both barrels simultaneously, aiming one while the other was reloading. He grinned up at his professor as he hauled him out of the gel and he was deposited on the bench again. The shots had gotten harder and harder as the game had gone on and the sense of achievement was intense.

"Thanks, professor; that was brilliant!" He exclaimed, significantly more energetic than he had been the day before. He pulled the towel around his shoulders and squeezed the gel out of his hair as Snape set the pod to clean itself.

"Indeed, Mr Potter, congratulations." The man said wryly as he typed commands. Truly, he was rather pleased with the boy's performance; though not outside the bounds of normality, it was high on the scale, and it showed that his reflexes had not been affected by the malnutrition he had suffered, or that, if they had, Harry would be truly someone to watch once he'd gotten over it. He glanced side on at the child in question, who was wiping his face free of gel with the corner of a towel; though much improved, he remained weakened and now Snape was demanding more of him, eating into what Snape had privately called 'nap time'. But, it would seem that Harry would not require putting to bed this time; his colour was good and his movements slow but not sluggish. Perhaps they would be able to clean before heading back, Snape thought, going for a cleaning cloth as Harry prevented his toes from dripping gunk onto the floor.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Hagrid joined them for dinner that night, his large body folding almost impossibly to get into the Mess' chairs. He'd brought with him three large portions of steak which Harry was staring at with trepidation; Vernon Dursley had liked his steak very rare and it had often bled on the plate, which he was then expected to clean up. However, when Snape took them off the griddle, they were a deeper brown than that and he poured some brown sauce thing over it that smelled like pepper. It was at this point that Harry's mouth started watering.

There was salad too, and Harry munched on carrot sticks and tomatoes, once he had devoured the main dish, following Hagrid's example and eating them with his fingers, with judicious use of his napkin. Hagrid was even gesturing with a carrot, at one point, and though Snape looked nonplussed at this it was unclear whether it was the food-waving or the talk of porbeagle sharks.

Harry did find out that Hagrid was nearly finished with rounding up the planet-born, and he realised that there was only a week and a half left until they would all up and leave for Hogwarts. He couldn't say that he wasn't nervous, it was going into _space_ though, and that made up for a lot. And Snape would be there...

And then there would be manoeuvres and Harry would probably pass out and everyone would see and people would know his name before he introduced himself and they would point at his scar and, and...

"Harry Potter, stop that at once!" Snape's sharp voice cut through the haze and Harry took a deep breath, looking up at the man with enormous eyes. He was closer than he had been before and Harry realised that the professor was kneeling in front of him, his chair having been turned on its axis.

"'Ere now, 'Arry, wha's matter?" Hagrid was leaning in close on his other side, his plate sized right hand on Harry's back.

"Um, sorry, I, ah... right, sorry." He stuttered, huffing wryly at his own behaviour. "I just, I'm nervous..." He admitted to his knees.

There was an almost silent sigh from Snape and Harry looked up with a worried half smile, "I mean, I know it'll be alright but... it's going to be so different! I mean... space! And people who've known my name longer than I have..."

"And myself, and Hagrid and Hedwig. You will not be alone," Snape's hands gripped his shoulders and squeezed. Harry nodded and rubbed his hands over his face, in an attempt to buck himself up.

"You're right, I know, I'm sorry." He said at his knees, glad he hadn't tipped over the edge into a fully fledged panic attack.

"Cease apologising, Potter, one might start to imagine you have done something wrong." Snape said in his usual tone as he stood and backed off. Harry managed a grin, shaky as it may have been and was nearly catapulted off his chair when Hagrid patted him on the back.

"There ya go, now. Nowt tah be afraid 'a!" He exclaimed while Harry surreptitiously rolled his shoulders.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Harry fidgeted and shuffled his feet nervously, looking up at the Thanatos' hull. He knew he'd met him before, Snape had brought him to the Thrace in the large fighter, but he had not only been asleep, he hadn't been wearing his Interface then, either. Add that to the fact that it was the last day of August and they were headed to the spaceport and Harry was very jittery indeed.

It had taken him what was left of the summer holidays, a little more than a week, to grow accustomed to his Interface enough that Snape would let him wear it all the time, and it had been quite the revelation; the enormous influx he had experienced the first few times was still there, but Harry could shut it out, stop it from reaching his head. It was stored temporarily in the Interface instead, where the information would decay if he didn't access it. Snape had said that he could store the more useful stuff on his tablet, permanently if he wanted, so that had been his homework for the past four days, talking to the Thrace and requesting interesting files.

That had taken him time to get the hang of; for a while all the images he had transferred had been corrupt because he had been distracted and something had gotten missed and then he'd started losing text because he was focused on graphics. It had been incredibly frustrating. Snape had drilled 'concentration, clarity and constancy' into his head until he had got the hang of it, and get it he had. He checked the tablet under his arm for the fifth time that morning and yes, the notes he had taken were still there and _yes_ the image of the Thrace's communications network was intact.

He put the little computer back in stand-by and fidgeted some more; his trunk had been packed the night before and he had checked it over before he went to bed and Snape had ordered him to do it again that morning, but he was still somewhat anxious that he had left something behind. Hedwig, perched lightly on his shoulder, gripping the special epaulette Madam Malkin had added, showed no such agitation; she was bouncing happily, tail waving in the air behind his head. All she needed to be content was the dried fish and pieces of melon he had in his bag.

He had been partly reassured, and partly irritated, to hear that she wouldn't be bothered by faster than light travel _or_ zero-g conditions; it was in her blood, somehow. He had hoped that they would learn together, but never mind. He just hoped he didn't make a complete arse of himself aboard the Hogwarts Express.

He had a little confidence that he would be ok in lessons, at least... Snape had said that plenty of sky-born never even opened their texts before they got to Hogwarts, _and_ had begrudgingly complimented him on his performance in the simulator. Harry had used it eight times in total, while he was getting used to his Interface and it had been immense fun. Having never played on a games console of any kind, it was a revelation and Snape's insistence on calling them 'exercises' hadn't diminished his enthusiasm at all. The one dampener was that he would occasionally be reminded of his cousin, and he was sure it showed on his face because Snape would become solemn and serious and the difficulty level would increase, an apt distraction.

"Cease your gawping, Mr Potter, and follow!" Professor Snape said, coming out from behind the Thanatos' shadowed belly. The lights in the fighter deck were off as the Thrace had been mostly powered down, leaving only the attenuated light of the sun reflecting off the sea bed to light the large space. It shifted and slid across the Thanatos' hull like oil as the barrier holding back the sea rippled.

Snape was wearing dress uniform today, so he would be recognised by new students and parents, and it was... impressive. The Hogwarts emblem was stitched on each shoulder and his insignia was pinned to the fabric, next to his mark of rank on the right side of his chest. The jacket itself was he inky black of space and had a high collar, unlike his every day jacket and Harry's uniform, which had lapels. It reached down to his knees, Harry noted as the man turned sharply to climb the ladder to Thanatos' cockpit, and was split up the back, to the level of his waist; it swished dramatically. The fabric itself was so dark; it made Snape's pale, Sky-born skin look like marble, or snow.

Harry tucked his tablet back in his bag, checked that Hedwig was clinging on tightly and started up the ladder, a glorified set of recesses in the ship's hull, extended down to the deck by a short stretch of rungs. Thanatos was bigger than Norberta and loomed in the sultry light; with deeper wings and a larger fuselage, due in part to the addition of a hold, currently full of medical supplies. His propulsion drives were proportionally more impressive; Harry climbed past one as he reached the top of the ladder and it was easily as big as his top half. He climbed up onto the surface of the wing and could just see the back of his Professors head where he was leaning over the back of the co-pilots seat, doing ... _something_ esoteric with a barrier emitter.

Harry swallowed nervously, hoping that arriving with a teacher wouldn't single him out _too_ much, at least not any more than being the Boy-Who-Lived would... His nerves dissolved into a scowl as he remembered the people at Gringott's, the Swiss bank, and their irritating, frightening behaviour.

He was jerked out of his thoughts when the floor disappeared from under his feet; Snape had picked him up as if he weighed nothing. He gripped the teachers' arms as he was lifted over the rim of the cockpit and lowered into the dark and complicated interior. The co-pilot's seat was larger than Harry by a significant amount and his head truly had no hope of reaching the headrest. His legs stuck out forwards because his knees didn't reach the edge of the seat but he was paying little attention to these little details; he had a view of the instrument panel and was drinking in the glowing lights, numbers and screens that littered the surface. Most of them he had not a clue about; graphs, figures, strange codes and esoteric symbols that he didn't even recognise, let alone understand. The only thing that looked even vaguely familiar was the three dimensional readout of sensor readings and even that looked foreign and different from what he had encountered in the simulator.

"Strap in, Potter. The lemur too." Snape ordered as he sat himself in the pilots chair and began running checks and booting up the control system. His uniform jacket was gone, presumably somewhere in the back of the ship and his second skin of conduction shirt shone in the lights of the instruments.

Harry was quick to obey, the blue barrier of the restrainer going over his chest and hips. A second, more flexible and less elastic harness was obviously for Hedwig and he put her inside. She immediately clung to his jacket front, arranging her tail to dangle out of the harness and tucking her head against his chest. The harness pulled her little body close to his chest; she made a comforting warm patch even through his uniform and he stroked her back gratefully. She was looking sleepy already, like she did when Harry wrapped her up in a towel after swimming. "Ready, sir."

"Very well, take off in ten." Replied the pilot-come-Professor, his hands flickering over the controls and touch sensitive screens. The Thanatos began to purr as his engines warmed up, Harry's fingertips buzzed with the sensation, and the cockpit roof slid up over them in a silent ripple. The blue glow coming off the propulsion drives lit up the fighter deck as they began rumbling forwards, gaining speed.

"Contact with water in three... two..." Snape was saying and Harry glanced nervously at the professor; the implacable calm was reassuring so Harry pressed himself back in his seat, wriggling his bum a little to get comfortable, and gripped the edge of his seat firmly. The barrier between air and water rippled as it got nearer and nearer until Harry could see the little fishes darting away from the now shivering surface.

"One."

Thanatos' nose broke the barrier and they sliced into the water. The ship jerked as the wings caught in the thicker substance and begun to generate lift; they shot out into the ocean, canted upwards towards the glittering, rolling surface. Bubbles streamed behind the wing tips as the last of the air was left behind and the propulsion drives' changed from a purr to a full on growl. Harry laughed delightedly as it grew brighter and brighter, the sun starting to warm the back of his hands, and then they were airborne; in a great spray of seawater, the Thanatos leaped from the ocean and into the sky.

The sunlight was brilliant; warm and sparkling on the hull as streams of water were flicked off by the wind. There was a jerk as the Thanatos' nose dipped and the air caught under his wings followed by a roar as the 'drives caught in the new medium and drove them forwards.

Harry's face felt sore from the impossibly large grin spread all over it, but, looking out over a glittering, shifting sea and towards London, he couldn't suppress it.

"Air traffic control, this is Tango Hotel Sierra Six Niner Four, come in." Snape said quietly but with clear, clipped syllables. There was a click, followed by an unfamiliar voice _smarming_ its way through the comms channel;

"Copy, Tango, Hotel, Sierra. This is District one, Central; how can I help you, sir?"

Harry glanced at Snape; he didn't think that slimy tone would go down well with the man, and he was right; his reply was curt and biting.

"You can help me by doing your _job_. Requesting confirmation of flight path to lift dock niner point seven five, Transport code Hotel Echo Five, Seven, Niner, Two." Snape snapped into his microphone, making Harry sink down in his chair and try to hide his amused grin; he could _swear_ the professor was enjoying himself. The stuttering reply was made legible only by the rigid structure of radio codes and Snape did, indeed, look smug.

They banked, turning their trajectory further northwards so the sun was to their right, in the east. It was low thanks to the early hour but Harry still enjoyed the warmth and the light picked out the oncoming coastline in clear relief. There were beaches, roads, towns, boats... a great deal to see, but Harry couldn't help but be drawn to the instrument panel instead. His Interface was mostly powered down and he wasn't supposed to be doing anything with it so the dials, graphs and readouts were the next best thing to contacting Thanatos directly. The Altitude graph he managed to figure out, along with something that could only be speed, but then there was a second one just to the right that was also reading a speed, but it was different from the one on the left, which made no sense to him.

Snape's legs were invisible up to the knee since they tucked into the control mechanisms of Thanatos' cockpit but Harry could see them shift in concert with his hands, which were wrapped around a pair of joysticks, as they tilted to make a second course correction. The teacher must have noticed him looking;

"I rather believed you would prefer arriving clean, hence the control rig. Up in the Black I would most certainly use a gel." He commented mildly, making slight twitches to compensate for an updraft off the costal cliffs. Harry nodded and shuffled back in his seat so he was sitting more upright; Hedwig complained briefly at being jostled so he laid a warm hand over her back and she went back to sleep. He craned his neck to look out of the cockpit and watched the sea disappear behind them, feeling a surprising pang of... what? Loss? He frowned and turned inwards, head down and shoulders slightly hunched. Was that what leaving _home_ felt like? Was he allowed to call it that?

He didn't notice the sideways glances Snape was giving him as he shuffled around, trying to get comfortable in the overly large chair. He didn't notice the almost silent sigh Snape let out as he locked one of the joysticks and his hand tapped over a screen.

They remained quiet, and Harry introverted, for the remainder of the hour long journey.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Severus had begun to notice patterns. Small things, small enough that they had built up over the month they had been in close association, only then becoming noticeable. It had begun with Hagrid's comment that Harry was old, somehow. Severus had soon seen what he meant; Harry's calm, reflective attitude screamed of a maturity, a life experience that Harry should simply not have had by age eleven. Only his panic attacks had shown just how incapable of handling such things an eleven-year-old truly was.

Where many children knew to trust people like teachers, doctors, people in authority, Harry _watched_ them, as he had in Severus' temporary office, suspicious and cautious. He had reacted in Ollivanders in a logical, if in the end detrimental way; fleeing from a threat, towards a place of safety. Though the sudden exertion and adrenalin had triggered hyperventilation, the action itself could have saved Harry from being accidentally being sent back to the Dursleys...

Severus resisted the anger building just beneath the surface and flexed his fingers over the joysticks; it would be no good if the stream of instructions he was sending through his Interface was interrupted. But Harry's _voice_ when he had spoken of the planet-born Hagrid was contacting...!

They were fortunate there were no others like him and that there had not been for two years, now, but Harry had been concerned that others had fared as poorly as he had. The compassion was unreal, a phantom, a sheer impossibility, but there it was, nonetheless.

They were coming into District One airspace and he reduced their altitude to slip into the flight lane, above the shielded sky roads, but below inter-district air traffic. He was glad they were airborne, it gave him something to which he was forced to pay attention, away from the difficulties of Harry's short life and non-existent childhood. Severus wasn't stupid; he had seen the little broken army men that Harry carried with him and knew what their jerry-rigged holographics meant. He had contemplated fixing them properly, but had opted to hold that in reserve for a time when Harry didn't have quite as much on his plate. Besides, the work the boy had done alone had been enough and was something Harry should be proud of, if he was capable of pride; Severus could not yet tell.

Too many variables, not enough data...

Severus tried, rather hard, to push such jumbled thoughts to the back of his mind; there was not enough information to say much, so his little theories were quite possibly inaccurate...

He dialled back the power from the propulsion drives and they began to glide; pulling up the nose further reduced air speed and he soon had visual on the Kings Cross landing Rack. Unlike the Norberta, Thanatos couldn't land and take off vertically, but he could land on a very, very short runway; with the precision of a hawk to a fist, Severus and Thanatos tweaked engine power, flap elevation and put down on the bottom leaf of the Rack.

They rolled to a stop in the grip of a strong, flexible barrier and the Thanatos begun powering down. Severus pulled himself out of the control system, using his Interface to finish up the shut-down process. A glance at his charge showed that Harry had extracted both himself and his pet from the co-pilots chair so Severus took the small barrier emitter he'd used to generate the creatures harness and retreated into the small bay behind the chairs, only large enough to pick up an escape pod and care for its occupant. He retrieved his uniform jacket and Harry's pack, dropping the emitter inside, before opening the hatch and letting in the hubbub of the port.

"Wow..." Harry mumbled from his perch, stretching as tall as he could to look over the edge of the cockpit. Severus smirked internally; he recalled his own first view of the Hogwarts Express, it had been a damn fine sight.

Looking out over the port himself, the busy crowds of people surging and flowing over the white stone floor, the great barriers that cordoned off the ships from the melee, he could appreciate it all over again. Looming over it all, the Hogwarts Express and the Lunar Shuttle, great hulks in crimson and steely gray, respectively, crouched on heavy legs. Their stellar engines and propulsion drives filled the enormous space with a subsonic hum that Severus could feel beating against his chest, but not hear, and the glow of the engines, each as big as Thanatos, sent hot blue light over the crowd.

Platform Nine and Three Quarters was already beginning to crowd as students and parents gathered; more arriving even as he watched. The old, Sky-born families were standing proud, their children's uniforms immaculate and their Interfaces displayed clearly by their traditional, severe haircut. The mudder port crew scuttled around them, some fearfully, others respectfully as they finished fuelling the ship and loading luggage. The planet-born were less... striking, but easy to see once you knew what to look for; the children looked uncomfortable in their uniforms, the parents unsure or inordinately proud.

"This is Officer Snape to Port Control, acknowledge." Severus said, raising one hand to activate the microphone on his earpiece. The boy looked up from his study of the port, looking a little pale and Severus found himself putting a hand on that warm, bony shoulder before he could work out why.

"Officer, this is Control. Loading procedure to begin at t-minus fifteen minutes, please ensure that all cargo is secured." Came the rather digitalised voice into the earpiece and he responded with a brief affirmative before turning back to his charge.

"I must over see the Thanatos' docking with the Express, I believe it is time for you to meet your peers." He said, as calmly as he was able, despite the ripple of worry at releasing Harry into the crowd. Thanatos would have to watch the boy for him, however. Perhaps that would be for the best... Harry had enough to deal with without being accused of receiving special treatment. But... the VC community would be expecting Harry to have at the least an escort, if not a full blown guard, it would not be wholly inappropriate.

"Thanks, sir. I think... I think I can take it from here." He looked long and hard into that pale, too thin face and frowned; Harry's expression was determined and... ah, yes, _proud_.

"Very well, Mr Potter, you have your ticket?" He gave that shoulder a squeeze when he just nodded in reply and turned the boy towards himself, going to one knee to meet his eye. "I'll handle your luggage, the Prefects will check that you're strapped in properly, and I'll see you on the other side. The Thanatos will be watching."

"Thanks Professor, I'll be fine; the Express is beautiful." Harry said with that unbelievable, Lily-Evans smile. Severus' chest clenched and he returned the gesture with a terse nod before standing and handing over the boy's pack. Once it was settled on a shoulder and Hedwig was holding on tightly, he lifted the boy over the edge of the cockpit and onto the wing. He went straight for the ladder and was already scrambling down by the time Severus swung himself out of the cockpit. Standing on the wing, he raised his voice just enough to carry over the babble of voices;

"I'll be up front with the Pilot, if you need me!" Harry's face turned up to him, pale skin against the pitch black of his hair making a harsh contrast,

" _Thank you_ , Professor!" And he was gone; dropping off the end of the ladder, down the Rack staircase and away into the crowd. Severus watched him go with a fierce frown until the Thanatos reminded him that he had a job to do. Reluctantly, he turned away and went back to his ship.


End file.
